Rosai-Dorfman Disease of Rare Isolated Spinal Involvement: Report of 4 Cases and Literature Review

BACKGROUND: Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a rare histioproliferative disorder that only occasionally involves the central nervous system (CNS). CASE DESCRIPTION: The diagnosis and treatment of 4 patients with isolated spinal RDD are discussed. All 4 patients were treated by total or subtotal surgical resection and none of them experienced recurrence. Histopathologic examination showed a characteristic emperipolesis, and the lymphocytes were engulfed in the S-100-protein-positive histiocytes with no expression of CD1a. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative diagnosis of spinal RDD is still challenging because the lesion is usually a dura-based lesion that mimics a meningioma. Surgical resection is an effective treatment, and radiotherapy, steroid therapy, and chemotherapy have not shown reliable therapeutic efficiency.