• Isamu Miura, Motoo Kubota, Oji Momosaki, Miki Nyui, Kento Takebayashi, Takakazu Kawamata, and Masahito Yuzurihara.
• Department of Spinal Surgery, Kameda Medical Center, Chiba, Japan; Department of Neurosurgery, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: isamu2345@yahoo.co.jp.
• World Neurosurg. 2020 Feb 1; 134: 90-93.

BackgroundMeningeal melanocytoma is a rare benign lesion found in the central nervous system. Preoperative diagnosis of meningeal melanocytoma is often a diagnostic challenge, as the clinical and neurologic features are often nonspecific. Various characteristics, including the natural course of this tumor, remain poorly understood. We report a case of a rapidly growing dumbbell-shaped melanocytoma compressing the spinal cord that manifested 2 years after a tumor was identified at the right C2-C3 foramen.Case DescriptionA 40-year-old, right-handed man presented with a 2-month history of right palm and left leg numbness. Magnetic resonance imaging of the cervical spine showed a dumbbell-shaped tumor at the right C2-C3 foramen with extension into the central canal. The lesion was hyperintense on T1-weighted images and hypointense to isointense on T2-weighted images. Contrast enhancement was not visualized clearly. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography with computed tomography showed intense uptake in the lesion. The patient's history included a small lesion that had been localized at the right C2-C3 foramen 2 years before admission. The pathologic findings were consistent with melanocytoma.ConclusionsIt is important to include meningeal melanocytoma in the differential diagnosis of dumbbell tumors, as meningeal melanocytomas may show rapid progression.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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