The syringo-hydromyelia and its surgical treatment.

In this communication, we present a homogeneous series of 12 cases out of 25 patients having undergone a surgical operation on the posterior fossa for troubles of the cranio-rachidian junction, between 1967 and 1973. Each of these 12 cases presented an Arnold Chiari's malformation and either a "syringo-hydromyelia" (6 times), or "bulbie" (6 times) communicating with the IVth cerebral ventricle. Two cases with hydrocephaly and HIC were drained before the operation on the posterior fossa. Two cases had a ventriculo-atrial drainage 4 and 11 years after the operation for a hydrocephaly revealed by cerebral scanning done in 8 out of 12 of our cases, while the axial transversal tomography of the cervical column and the base of the skull showed a large medulla on the 7 examined cases. Two exitus have to be mentioned 3 and 9 years after the operation, respectively after a cardiac infarction and a pulmonary embolism. With a recoil of 6 to 12 years, we can speak of an improvement and a stabilisation of our cases with the technique chosen.