In the past, neurologic deficits found in association with sacral agenesis were thought to be unamenable to surgical therapy. Recent experience and a careful review of autopsy and case reports form the literature have demonstrated that this assumption is unwarranted. Four cases of sacral agenesis are reported with description of the myelographic findings of each case. Surgical confirmation was ...

A 23-year-old man presented with progressive difficulty walking since childhood. Examination showed pes cavus, hammer toes, and peroneal atrophy (Figure 1). Electroneuromyography revealed chronic denervation with an axonal pattern, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease was suspected. Urinary retention had started 3 years previously. Spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a lipomeningomye...

Cervical meningocele and myelomeningocele are rare spinal dysraphic lesions. Unlike lumbosacral dysraphic lesions, there is often no neurological deficit in infants with cervical lesions, thus the subtle features of cervical cord tethering may be overlooked on imaging. We report a case of cervical meningocele in an 8-month-old girl. The tethering band, confirmed intra-operatively, was not evide...

OBJECT The authors conducted a study to evaluate the risks and short-term benefits of surgical treatment for tethered cord syndrome (TCS) in patients older than 18 years of age. METHODS The authors studied a series of 57 consecutive adult patients with TCS of varying origins. Patients were examined by the same neurologist in a standardized fashion before and after surgery, and most were follo...

Tethered cord syndrome (TCS) or occult spinal dysraphism sequence is a collection of neurological conditions that potentially result from the abnormal fixation of the spinal cord secondary to a developmentally acquired or postoperative pathology. We present a schema for TCS consisting of etiology, embryology, pathophysiology, presentation, and classification in order to facilitate the comprehen...

Dermal sinus tracts have been reported all along the midline neuroaxis, with the majority being located in lumbar and sacral areas. They are usually associated with split cord malformations, tethered cord and inclusion tumors (dermoid, epidermoid, teratoma). Dermal sinus tracts with concomitant dermoid or epidermoid tumors are frequently associated with recurrent meningitis, but spinal subdural...

dysfunction due to congenital fixation or tethering of the distal spinal cord by the terminal filum is known as TCS. This member of the OSD family is often seen by pediatric and general neurosurgeons, and both the diagnosis and treatment are controversial and can be difficult. Drawing from a detailed literature review and our own experience with this entity at the Children’s Hospital, Birmingha...

Abstract Approximately 125 years ago, a group of pathologies now known as Chiari malformations was described for the first time. However, some mechanisms its formation still remain unknown. A bibliographic survey performed through search in PubMed. In 1938, it already theorized that an increase spinal cord tension could be cause malformation type 1 (CM1) tonsillar herniation. 1953, condition an...

A spinal cord injury encompasses a physical insult to the spinal cord. In the case of anterior spinal cord syndrome, the insult is a vascular lesion at the anterior spinal artery. We present the cases of two 13-year-old boys with anterior spinal cord syndrome, along with a review of the anatomy and vasculature of the spinal cord and an explanation of how a lesion in the cord corresponds to ante...