title: Suboccipital craniotomy in the surgical treatment of Chiari I malformation.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Yu-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: Rajashree
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Ferdnand C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Osuagwu
authors.forename: Jorge A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lazareff
mesh_terms: 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