[Operative treatment of syringomyelia].

There are many methods applied in operative treatment of syringomyelia. They may be divided into three groups: suboccipital decompression, myelotomy with drainage of the syringomyelic cavity, and terminal ventriculostomy. Occipito-vertebral decompression is the treatment of choice in cases of coexisting abnormalities in the region of the occipital foramen.

[Diagnostics of syringomyelia coexisting with Arnold-Chiari syndrome].

Frequent coexistence of syringomyelia and Arnold-Chiari syndrome results in overlapping of symptoms caused by these processes. Because the most common location of syringomyelic cavities is in the cervico-thoracic part of the spine, the first symptoms usually concern the upper extremities. Symptoms induced by compression through the invaginated cerebellar tonsils to the occipital foramen in Arnold-Chiari syndrome may be divided into three groups: increased intracranial pressure, cerebellar and spinal symptoms.

[Syringomyelia and Arnold-Chiari syndrome].

Many hypotheses concerning pathogenesis of syringomyelia were abandoned because of evidence found in more recent investigations. We should rank among them the "classical" theories of Gardner and Williams based on the assumption that syringomyelic cavities result from directing the fluid from the fourth ventricle to the central canal of the spine in the case of disturbances of circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid in the region of the cranio-spinal junction. The theory of intraspinal pulsation pressure of Greitz may explain the pathogenesis of syringomyelia in the case of obstacles to fluid flow from the cranial cavity to the spinal canal as in patients with Arnold-Chiari syndrome.

[Pathogenesis of syringomyelia].

Formation of syringomyelic cavities may be caused by known pathologic processes, e.g. neoplastic tumours, arachnitis, traumas or malformations of the cranio-vertebral junction, while pathogenesis of idiopathic, primary syringomyelia has not been established so far.

Clinical signs pointing to the source of hemorrhage in multiple intracranial aneurysms.

Background: In multiple aneurysms of cerebral vessels it is essential to correctly identify the aneurysm that has caused the hemorrhage, since it must be operated first. On the basis of our own material, we have evaluated the usefulness of various clinical signs and examinations in diagnosing which of several aneurysms was the cause of an intracranial hemorrhage.

Material/methods: The material consisted of 163 patients with a total of 391 aneurysms.