title: Adult diastematomyelia.
abstract: With modern imaging techniques, various types of spinal dysraphism are being diagnosed in adults with increasing frequency. We report a 42-year-old woman with diastematomyelia whose symptoms characteristically were precipitated by trauma. She exhibited other typical features such as a posterior midline hair patch and vertebral malformations. Metrizamide myelography with computerized tomography showed a bony septum at T11 with a cleft at T9-T11 separating two dural tubes each of which contained a single spinal hemicord. The septum was excised with complete relief of symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosurgery, Ottawa Civic Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Benoit
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Joaquin
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: al Fayez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009192:Myelography; D011184:Postoperative Period; D016136:Spina Bifida Occulta / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed