Surgical Aspects and Outcome of Delayed Tethered Cord Release

Abstract

Out of a total of 550 children followed up at our spina bifida center, we report on 81 patients who were reoperated upon for secondary tethered cord syndrome between 1993 and 2000. In four cases with preceding severe progressive scoliosis, untethering was followed by surgical correction and stabilization of curvatures. In 77 patients, the indication for surgery was based on late progressive neurological deterioration. The current clinical relevance of competing etiologic factors such as symptomatic Chiari malformation, hydromyelia, and shunt dysfunction, requiring different clinical management, had been previously carefully excluded. The children underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or myelo-computed tomography (m-CT) to identify the morphologic extent of tethering and any associated spinal malformations such as dermoid tumors (19 cases) or diastematomyelia (9 cases). Surgery became faster and safer through bilateral dural incision, undercutting arachnoid adhesions along the tethered area, although this procedure increased the need for dural grafting. Complete release of the conus medullaris and cauda equina was achieved in a total of 75 cases (93 %) including those who had undergone prophylactic surgery. A mean follow-up of 4.8 years in 77 patients operated upon for late progressive neurological deterioration confirmed stabilization of presenting symptoms in 65 cases (84 %) with 20 of them (26 %) even showing significant improvement. In 12 patients (16 %), including all cases of incomplete untethering (n = 4), there was further deterioration.

Musculoskeletal Complications of Neuromuscular Disease in Children

“…Neuromuscular scoliosis is more likely to be rapidly progressive than idiopathic [11,33]. Some evidence indicates, however, that if the underlying origin is corrected, such as spinal cord untethering, the spinal curvature may improve [34,35].…”

Tethered cord syndrome in a 24-year-old woman presenting with urinary retention

“…Early surgical intervention has demonstrated improvement in pain and stabilization in neurologic symptoms in as many as 90% of patients [5]. While Pang et al initially suggested limited improvement in bladder function, recent studies have shown otherwise [6].…”

Retethering : A Neurosurgical Viewpoint

“…According to Pierre-Kahn et al 34) , among the 16 re-untethered LLM patients, five (31%) improved, seven (44%) patients' progression stopped, three (19%) patients' deterioration continued, and one (6%) patient worsened (favorable 75%). Haberl et al 17) showed 26% significant improvement, 58% stabilization and 16% deterioration (including all four incomplete re-untethering cases) (favorable 84%) with a follow-up of >4.8 years in 77 patients. Martínez-Lage et al 27) demonstrated that eight patients improved, two patients stabilized, and one patient worsened (91% favorable) among 11 MMC patients with progressive retethering symptoms after an average follow-up of 5.5 years.…”

“…Complete untethering was possible in 93-100% of cases [17][18][19] . Our experience also showed a similar result of >90%.…”