ABSTRACT
Spinal cord compression occurs rarely in childhood and the diagnosis is usually made too late. We report 45 cases of non-traumatic spinal cord compression collected in our department between January 1982 and December 2002. Mean age was 11 years old with a male sex predominance [sex-ratio: 1.6]. Average delay of admission was 5 months. The most frequent complaints were gait disturbance [84.4%], pain [radicular or spinal] [66%] and sphincter dysfunction [24.4%]. Plain radiographs showed abnormalities in 46%. Magnetic resonance imaging has been more indicated since 1994. The distribution of lesions can be summerised as follows: predominance of dorsal involvement [37.7%], extramedullary lesions [75.6%] tumoural aetiologies [71.5%]. Forty-three cases were operated; 40 cases via posterior approach with laminectomy [33 cases] and laminotomy [7 cases], while anterior approach was performed in only 3 cases. Postoperative course showed neurologic improvement in 11 cases [24.4%], a stationary state in 28 cases [62.2%], and 3 cases of death. Unfortunately the long term outcome could not be followed in the majority of cases
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Spinal Cord Compression/diagnosis , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , ChildSubject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Supratentorial Neoplasms , Retrospective Studies , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Magnetic Resonance ImagingABSTRACT
The cerebral hydatic cyst is uncommon, representing only 2 to 3% of all the localizations. Children are the most concerned by this disease. This retrospective study is about 40 cases of cerebral hydatic cyst [CHC] collected in the department of neurosurgery of Ibn Rochd Universitary Hospital of Casablanca between 1986 and 2002. These 40 cases were 70% of all the CHC. The mean age was 9 years [4 to 15 years. 64% were boys. All the children had progressive intracranial hypertension and 95% had neurological deficit. The cerebral CT scan of all the patients permitted to assess the diagnosis. The right hemispheric localization was predominant. 3 children had multivesicular cyst and 2 children had multiple cysts. All the patients were operated according to Arana-Iniguez's technique with a post-operative course characterized by 2 cases of meningitis. The medical treatment is still not useful for this disease. The outcome was good in 94% of the cases. 2 cases recurred after one and two years and had surgery once more. In conclusion, the CHC has a good prognosis in children if the diagnosis and the treatment are assessed early. Prevention campaign can avoid the disease and its neurological effects