Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 8 , Pages 339-344, August 2007

Cervical Spinal Stenosis and Myelopathy Due to Atlas Hypoplasia

  • Yu-Hone Hsu

      Affiliations

    • Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Wen-Cheng Huang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Kang-Du Liou

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Yang-Hsin Shih

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Liang-Shong Lee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Henrich Cheng

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • Center for Neural Regeneration, Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Henrich Cheng, Neural Regeneration Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, 322, Section 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 11 September 2006; accepted 12 December 2006.

Article Outline

This paper describes a patient who presented at our hospital with neurologic symptoms due to congenital cervical spinal stenosis at the atlas level. Congenital atlantal stenosis is usually due to hypoplasia of the posterior arch of the atlas. It is a rare cause of spinal stenosis, and only 12 symptomatic patients with isolated atlantal stenosis have been reported. Current treatment is surgical decompression, and all reported patients receiving surgical treatment improved to some degree.

Key words:  atlas , decompression , myelopathy , spinal stenosis

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References 

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PII: S1726-4901(08)70015-7

doi:10.1016/S1726-4901(08)70015-7

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 8 , Pages 339-344, August 2007

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