Treatment of selected syringomyelias with syringo-pleural shunt: The experience with a consecutive 26 cases

• Syringo-pleural shunting is an efficient technique for syringomyelia that is unresponsive to causal treatment.
• Syringo-pleural shunting is safe and rather straightforward technique.
• Syringo-pleural shunting has good results both clinically and radiologically.
• The result is to be expected within the first few weeks and may be long lasting.

Summary of background dataIt is well established that syringomyelia can cause neurological symptoms and deficit by accumulation of fluid within syrinx cavities that lead to internal compression within the spinal cord. When other intervention treating the underlying etiology failed to yield any improvement, the next option would be a procedure to divert the fluid from the syrinx cavity, such as syringo-subarachnoid, syringo-peritoneal or syringo-pleural shunting. The indications and long term efficacy of these direct shunting procedures are still questionable and controversial.ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical indication, outcome and complication of syringe-pleural shunt (SPS) as an alternative for treatment of syringomyelia.Study designWe reported a retrospective 26 cases of syringomyelia were found to have indication for a diversion procedure. SPS was offered. Patients’ symptoms, mJOA score, and MRI were collected to evaluate the change of the syringomyelia and prognosis of the patients. 2-tailed wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to perform the statistical analysis of the mJOA scores.MethodsAll 26 patients underwent SPS. The clinical information was collected, the mean follow-up time was 27.4 months, 2-tailed wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to perform the statistical analysis of the mJOA scores. The key surgical technique, outcome and complications of SPS were reported in detail.ResultsNo mortality and severe complications occurred. Postoperative MRIs revealed near-complete resolution of syrinx in 14 patients, significant shrinkage of syrinx in 10 patients, no obvious reduction or unchanged in remaining 2 patient. Postoperatively, the symptoms improved in 24 cases (92.3%). Statistical analysis of the mJOA scores showed a statistical significance (P < 0.001) between the preoperative group and the 2-week postoperative group. No further significant improvement between 2 weeks to the final follow up at 27 months.ConclusionCollapse or remarkable shrinkage of the syrinx by SPS could ameliorate or at least stabilize the symptoms for the patient. We recommend small laminectomy and a less than 3mm myelotomy either at PML or DREZ. The SPS procedure can be an effective and relatively long-lived treatment for the idiopathic syringomyelia and those that failed other options.