Primary sacral bone tumours in children (report of 16 cases with a short literature review)

16 cases of primary sacral bone tumours in children are reported. These include 13 patients with Ewing's sarcoma and 3 with very rare primary sacral bone tumours in childhood--chordoma, haemangiopericytoma and osteoblastoma. All sacral bone tumours, with the exception of Ewing's sarcoma are very rare in childhood. The possibility of a sacral tumour should be considered in a child with radiculopathy. CT and MR make the diagnosis of primary sacral bone tumours much easier with the added possibility of recognition of the true nature of the lesion in many instances. Reports of primary sacral bone tumours in children are scarce. Most of the patients are incorporated in adult series which do not specify the age of the child and the site of the tumour. The purpose of this paper is to describe 16 children with primary sacral bone tumours.