Talk:Spinal tumor

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 November 2019 and 21 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Atenorio2080. Peer reviewers: Crennels.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:00, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

note

I have been going through the list of orthopaedic conditions listed as stubs and suggesting this template for Orthopaedic Conditions (see Talk:Orthopedic surgery)
Name
Definition
Synonyms
Incidence
Pathogenesis and predisposing factors
Pathology
Stages
Classification
Natural History/Untreated Prognosis
Clinical Features
Investigation
Non-Operative Treatment
Risks of Non-Operative Treatment
Prognosis following Non-Operative Treatment
Operative Treatment (Note that each operations should have its own wiki entry)
Risks of Operative Treatment
Prognosis Post Operation
Complications
Management
Prevention
History
--Mylesclough 06:32, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Editing Workplan

I am a 4th-year medical student at UCSF and will be editing this article. I selected this article as I am pursuing neurosurgery and spinal pathology is a great interest of mine. It currently has a Start-Class quality rating and feel that the Wikipedia community would greatly benefit by expanding this article. Any suggestions/recommendations are welcome.

General Format
My primary objective is to expand this article so it adheres to the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles. I intend to follow the format of the "Brain Tumor" wikipedia article, with certain adjustments as necessary, as it contains all suggested sections under the manual. This Spinal Tumor article has several sections missing and few references within the article. The following are the sections I intend to include:

Lead Section
Edit bullet point format into paragraph form.
Greatly expand the introductory section to include a summary of each section.

• Great job expanding the lead section. You did a nice job giving a preview of the rest of the article. You might consider adding a signpost for the subdivision of tumors, “There are three main types of spinal tumors classified based on their location: extradural and intradural (intradural-intramedullary and intradural-extramedullary).
• I like that you summarized even thse sections you haven’t gotten around to yet (eg prognosis) so we can see where you / future editors might go. Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

• Great suggestions! Added the signpost.Atenorio2080 (talk)

Signs and Symptoms
Rename "Symptoms" section as "Signs and Symptoms".
Re-organize the the signs/symptoms and present them in order of most to least common.

• I like the idea of renaming to signs/symptoms, and the ordering makes sense
• When you say the diagnosis is challenging, you might consider adding a few examples of what the ddx involves – what are the more common and begign degenerative spinal diseases? Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Agree with this suggestion. Thanks.Atenorio2080 (talk)

Causes
Will create this new section that is missing.
Will mostly consist of risk factors such as exposures and genetics.

• Could you make this “causes and risk factors”? I think sometimes that communicates that risk factors can accumulate to cause a disease. Also, I have no idea if this is true – but could exposure to radiation be connected at all? Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

• Thanks. Renamed causes and risk factors. Radiation is often cited as a possible cause for most tumors but I couldn't find a specific source stating this for spinal tumors, so I decided to not include it. Atenorio2080 (talk)

Pathophysiology
Will move the content written under this section under the "Classification" section.
Will create a new section that explains the anatomy of the spine/spinal cord and where each type of tumor arises from/is located.

• I love the links that you added here; so many obscure pieces of anatomy that need more clarification.
• You could consider breaking this up into more paragraphs (I might do this later as I edit, see if you like it): right now this is a large block of uninterrupted text and the reader may be less overwhelmed if broken up.
• This is picky but try to keep the ordering consistent btwn extradural and intradural: in the lead section you start with extradural and in the pathophysiology section you start with intradural. Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

• Thanks for the suggestion. This is how I broke down the paragraphs: Anatomy of spinal cord, location of intradural vs extradural tumors, and metastatic tumors.Atenorio2080 (talk)

Diagnosis
Will expand and reorganize from most commonly used to least commonly used diagnostic methods.
Will also create a "Classification" subheading and include the most common tumors under each classification.

• I like the subheadings here; guides the reader through the diagnostic process
• I added a link to “neurological exam” page
• Under “imaging” (I know this seems silly) I would add that the purpose of imaging is to visualize or spinal cord, which can help 1) diagnose a tumor and 2) clarify which type of tumor
• Is a biopsy ever useful? Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)
• It is! Added it to the lead section but have not gotten around adding it here. Atenorio2080 (talk)

Prevention/Screening
Will create this new section to include preventative measures and current screening recommendations.

• I think your plan for this section is good – the preventive measures section will be really helpful, especially the screening guidelines Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Treatment
Will expand this section to include a subheading for each type of treatment (e.g. Surgery, Radiation, etc).
Will be organized from most commonly used to least commonly used.

• It seems from your intro section that you’ll add palliative care here, too – would be cool to link to our classmates’ page! Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Prognosis
Will create this new section to include prognosis for the most common type of spinal tumors under their own subheading.

• This is great; and I’m guessing these would be based on location and then another category for metastatic? Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Epidemiology
Will create this section to include incidence, prevalence, and sex/age distribution in countries where these tumors are more common.

• Great ; you could also consider adding one statistic or two to the Intro section. Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Research
Will include only if there are significant and reliable sources.

• Love this idea. Could also expand to “Research / ongoing questions”. Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Atenorio2080 (talk) 18:41, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

FEEDBACK General comments: You’ve done an awesome job and have made so many clarifying edits; I appreciate your attention to the structure of the article and your thoughtful approach (eg. ordering things from most to least common). I also love that you’ve added so many links to other Wikipedia pages.
I’ll go through and do some line edits with the main goal of cutting some longer sentences and maybe breaking up the text a bit; of course feel free to reject them! One more suggestion for the general article would be to add a picture of the spinal cord; if it’s not too much work (or maybe there is already an image) it would be great to have a picture that shows the location of each tumor. I think that would help readers to visualize as they read the intro and the Pathophysiology sections especially. I’m excited to see your updates to the treatment section, prognosis, epidemiology, and research sections; your plans sound excellent. Crennels (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Response to general comments: Thanks for taking the time to go over my workplan and the edits I've made so far! I responded to your comments under the relevant sections. I've incorporated some of your great suggestions. I decided to focus on the lead statement, signs/symptoms, causes, pathophys, diagnosis and treatment sections. Looking forward to expanding to include prevention/screening, prognosis, epidemiology, and research in the near future! Atenorio2080 (talk)