Foramen magnum decompression for Chiari I malformation: a procedure not to be underestimated.

Objective: Chiari I malformation may be treated with foramen magnum decompression (FMD). We aim to describe the symptoms with which patients initially present, and to determine the number and type of complications occurring after FMD for Chiari I malformation.

Methods: Retrospective review of medical records for patients who had FMD performed for Chiari I malformation between January 2009 and December 2011.

Spinal level of myelomeningocele lesion as a contributing factor in posterior fossa volume, intracranial cerebellar volume, and cerebellar ectopia.

Object: McLone and Knepper's unified theory of Chiari malformation Type II (CM-II) describes how the loss of CSF via the open posterior neuropore fails to create adequate distending pressure for the developing rhomboencephalic vesicle. The authors of the present article describe the relationship between the posterior fossa volume and intracranial cerebellar volume as being related to the distance from the obex of the fourth ventricle to the myelomeningocele lesion using a common mathematical model, the Hagen-Poiseuille law.

Methods: All newborns who required closure of a myelomeningocele at the authors' institution between 2008 and 2011 and who were between 4 weeks premature and 2 months, corrected gestational age, at the time of MRI were included in this study.

Non-syndromic trigonocephaly: surgical decision making and long-term cosmetic results.

Background: Surgical correction is often required for cosmetic correction of trigonocephaly. The purpose of this paper was to report the long-term aesthetic outcome as appreciated by the parents/patients themselves. The self-evaluation of cosmetic outcome after trigonocephaly correction has not previously been reported.

Sagittal synostosis: a review of 53 cases of sagittal suturectomy in one unit.

The role of sagittal suturectomy in the treatment of scaphocephaly remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to report the experience of the National Craniofacial Unit in Dublin. This unit is the referral centre for the Republic of Ireland and serves a population of approximately 3.

Behavioral, developmental, and educational problems in children with nonsyndromic trigonocephaly.

Object: The neurobehavioral morbidity of nonsyndromic trigonocephaly is incompletely understood. The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to assess the degree of developmental, educational, and behavioral problems in patients with nonsyndromic trigonocephaly and second, to establish whether patients with mild degrees of trigonocephaly had a lower frequency of such problems.

Methods: The authors performed an observational study of the frequency of developmental, educational, and behavioral problems in 63 children with trigonocephaly at the National Craniofacial Centre in the Republic of Ireland between 1989 and 2004.

Choroid plexus adenoma: case report and review of the literature.

Case Report: An 8-month-old infant with macrocephaly was found to have hydrocephalus and a cystic third ventricular tumour; biopsy of the tumour showed a choroid plexus adenoma. The tumour was attached to the ependymal lining and was strongly adherent to the walls and floor of the anterior third ventricle.

Treatment: After biopsy, it was felt that a radical resection would carry a high risk of injury to the floor of the third ventricle and cause new neurological deficits.