Diastematomyelia--the "double-barrelled" spine.

Diastematomyelia is an uncommon condition seen only rarely by general orthopaedic surgeons. For this reason it may be overlooked. We present a specimen ofa “doublebarrelled” spine (Fig. 1) which may serve to remind surgeons of its occurrence when considering a patient with back and lower extremity complaints. Although the condition has been discussed extensively in the past (Matson et al. 1950; James and Lassman 1960; Winter et al. 1974; Hood et al. 1980), to the best of our knowledge no actual bony specimen has previously been presented in the orthopaedic or anatomical literature.