Suboccipital craniotomy in the surgical treatment of Chiari I malformation.
OBJECTIVE
The object of this study was to present craniotomy for Chiari type I patients.


METHODS
Six patients with Chiari type I underwent suboccipital craniotomy. All patients showed clinical improvement, and none had any complications. Two patients had syringomyelia; it disappeared in entirety. We describe the procedure for posterior fossa decompression.


RESULTS
Three-dimensional volumetric analysis using Vitrea workstation for postoperative posterior fossa volumes was calculated and was seen to have been increased on an average, from pre-operative (168 cc) to postoperative volume (192 cc).


CONCLUSIONS
We thus conclude that suboccipital craniotomy results in resolution of the Chiari symptoms yet achieves effective expansion of posterior fossa.
Chou
Yu-Cheng
YC
Division of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Sarkar
Rajashree
R
Osuagwu
Ferdnand C
FC
Lazareff
Jorge A
JA
D000293:Adolescent; D001139:Arnold-Chiari Malformation / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003399:Craniotomy / Q000379:methods*; D019299:Decompression, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D013595:Syringomyelia / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome