Treatment of selected syringomyelias with syringo-pleural shunt: the experience with a consecutive 26 cases.
OF BACKGROUND DATA
It is well established that syringomyelia can cause neurological symptoms and deficit by accumulation of fluid within syrinx cavities that lead to internal compression within the spinal cord. When other intervention treating the underlying etiology failed to yield any improvement, the next option would be a procedure to divert the fluid from the syrinx cavity, such as syringo-subarachnoid, syringo-peritoneal or syringo-pleural shunting. The indications and long term efficacy of these direct shunting procedures are still questionable and controversial.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical indication, outcome and complication of syringe-pleural shunt (SPS) as an alternative for treatment of syringomyelia.


STUDY DESIGN
We reported a retrospective 26 cases of syringomyelia were found to have indication for a diversion procedure. SPS was offered. Patients' symptoms, mJOA score, and MRI were collected to evaluate the change of the syringomyelia and prognosis of the patients. 2-tailed wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to perform the statistical analysis of the mJOA scores.


METHODS
All 26 patients underwent SPS. The clinical information was collected, the mean follow-up time was 27.4 months, 2-tailed wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to perform the statistical analysis of the mJOA scores. The key surgical technique, outcome and complications of SPS were reported in detail.


RESULTS
No mortality and severe complications occurred. Postoperative MRIs revealed near-complete resolution of syrinx in 14 patients, significant shrinkage of syrinx in 10 patients, no obvious reduction or unchanged in remaining 2 patient. Postoperatively, the symptoms improved in 24 cases (92.3%). Statistical analysis of the mJOA scores showed a statistical significance (P<0.001) between the preoperative group and the 2-week postoperative group. No further significant improvement between 2 weeks to the final follow up at 27 months.


CONCLUSION
Collapse or remarkable shrinkage of the syrinx by SPS could ameliorate or at least stabilize the symptoms for the patient. We recommend small laminectomy and a less than 3mm myelotomy either at PML or DREZ. The SPS procedure can be an effective and relatively long-lived treatment for the idiopathic syringomyelia and those that failed other options.
['Fan|Tao|T|', 'Zhao|XinGang|X|', 'Zhao|HaiJun|H|', 'Liang|Cong|C|', 'Wang|YinQian|Y|', 'Gai|QiFei|Q|', 'Zhang|Fangyi|F|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D002557:Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts D005260:Female D006706:Homeostasis D006801:Humans D007796:Laminectomy D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D012189:Retrospective Studies D013116:Spinal Cord D013346:Subarachnoid Space D013595:Syringomyelia D016896:Treatment Outcome D055815:Young Adult
Syringomyelia Myelotomy CSF homeostasis Cerebrospinal fluid homeostasis Syringopleural shunting