Terminal ventriculostomy for syringomyelia

The pathogenesis of syringomylia is not yet well known and its surgical management still poses problems. Terminal ventriculostomy, as proposed by Gardner et al. (1977), in treating the communicating syringomyelia could be an alternative approach as opposed to the cranio-vertebral decompression or subarachnoid shunt of the syrinx. This operation was performed by the authors in 3 cases. In all of them there was postoperative improvement of the neurological symptoms. In the authors' opinion the main problem is the difficulty in preoperative diagnosis of communicating syringomyelia. This technique is simple and could present an efficient means of diagnosing the communicating syringomyelia, particularly when there are no associated malformations.