The surgical treatment of upper cervical spine metastases are controversial up to now. By summarizing and analyzing the clinical data of the upper cervical spine involved metastases treated surgically in our center, we mainly aimed to investigate the surgical decisions and outcomes so as to provide more references for the clinical treatment of this special and complex spine metastasis. We evaluated the patients’ pre- and post-operative neck pain and neurologic function with paired t test, followed by the statistics of the selection of surgical approaches, ways of reconstruction, and related complications. Moreover, the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was adopted to analyze the patients’ survival according to different growth group (rapid, moderate, and slow). There were 39 patients with atlantoaxial metastases in this study. The most common symptom (94.87%) was occipital-cervical pain, which relieved greatly after surgical interventions (p < 0.01). The metastases mainly resulted from lung cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer with an incidence of 38.46 and 10.26%, respectively. As to different growth group, the rapid-growth tumors accounted for 69.23% in all atlantoaxial metastases. Tumor resection and stabilization were performed mainly via the combined anterior and posterior approach (66.67%). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rate at the last follow-up was 58.5, 40, and 28.3%, respectively, with a median survival time of 18 months. The rate of complications associated with the surgical intervention was 12.82% (5/39), which is lower than that of the previous reports and generally controllable. Relatively radical interventions with surgery for upper cervical spine metastases offered satisfactory outcomes with a low mortality. Together with adjuvant therapy, surgical treatment benefits patients with atlantoaxial metastases by relieving regional pain, restoring or improving the neurologic function, stabilizing the quality of life, and prolonging the survival time of such patients.

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is a soft tissue sarcoma that rarely occurs in the spine, and a minimal number of cases have been reported in the literature. Spinal SS is challenging in diagnosis and treatment and has a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to summarize and analyse the clinical features and outcomes of patients with spinal SS. A total of 16 cases of patients with spinal SS admitted to our institution were reviewed retrospectively. General information, radiological findings and treatment strategies were collected. These patients were followed up regarding their continuing treatment, local or distant recurrence and survival. Spinal SS patients in this series ranged in age from 12 to 68 years (median, 33). Four en bloc resections and 12 piecemeal resections were performed. Improved Frankel (P = 0.002), visual analogue scale (P = 0.002) and Karnofsky Performance Status (P = 0.002) scores were seen postoperatively. The mean follow-up period was 35.9 ± 23.5 (median 31.5, range 4–87) months, with four local recurrences and three distant metastases detected. Eight patients (50.0%) died of disease by the last follow-up. The 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival rates were 87.5%, 61.4% and 40.9%, respectively. Preoperative chemotherapy was used in three patients to facilitate surgical resection, and adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were used in six patients. Spinal SS has a relatively high risk of local recurrence and distant metastasis. Surgical intervention can improve the neurological function and relieve pain in these patients. En bloc excision is an effective treatment strategy to improve survival and prevent local recurrence. Management of spinal SS should be under the instruction of a multidisciplinary team.