[Morphological changes in the central canal of the cat after kaolin injection into the cisterna magna]

40 adult cats were made hydrocephalic by intracisternal injection of 200 mg Kaolin. 34 survived between 24 hours to 4 months. In 19 cases a ventriculostomy was carried out, whereby in 13 animals a contrast filling of the central canal occurred. The contrast medium injected into the ventricles entered the external CSF-space in the lumbo-sacral junction of the filum terminale. Light- and electron-microscopic studies showed adaptive structural changes of the central canal epithelium in the early stages. In later stages massive destructions of ependyma and spinal cord parenchyma were found.