When reporting this tumour, merely saying that the lesion is located at between T9 and T11 is insufficient. Why?
Thoracic tumours are notoriously difficult to localize and many surgeons request preoperative spinal markers (e.g. carbon or methylene blue). As vertebral anatomy, particularly at the lumbosacral junction, is variable it is essential to describe in ones report how the spine was numbered. If the report counts from above, whereas the marker is performed by counting from below, it is possible that the wrong level will be operated upon. This is less of an issue for a large lesion like this, as the chances of being off by two levels is slight.
Large intramedullary tumour (red arrow) is located eccentrically on the right side of the cord. Normal cord tissue can be seen on the left side of the canal, distorted and displaced (yellow dotted line).