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Case Reports
. 2016 Oct-Dec;7(4):581-583.
doi: 10.4103/0976-3147.185504.

Cystic dilation of the ventriculus terminalis

Masahiro Kawanishi  1 , Hidekazu Tanaka  1 , Kunio Yokoyama  1 , Makoto Yamada  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Cystic dilation of the ventriculus terminalis

Masahiro Kawanishi et al. J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2016 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

The ventriculus terminalis (VT) is a virtual cavity of the conus medullaris that appears during embryonic life. We presented a case with the cystic dilation of the ventriculus terminalis (CDVT) in a symptomatic patient. A 66-year-old female suffered from disturbance while walking evolving for the past 2 years. An MR image revealed a cystic dilatation of ventriculus terminalis. The patient experienced marked improvement of lower extremity strength by a fenestration of cyst and cyst-subarachnoid shunt. Treatment for asymptomatic patients seems to be the best conducted conservatively, whereas patients with focal neurological deficits seem to be best handled surgically.

Keywords: Cyst; dilatation; ventriculus terminalis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Magnetic resonance images. A preoperative T2-weighted image (a and b) shows the cystic dilatation of the conus medullaris, and postoperative T2-weighted images (c) obtained 3 years after surgical treatment shows regression of the dilatation without evidence of relapse
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Intraoperative image of the window of thin cyst wall with a suture (8.0). (b) Photomicrographs of histological samples obtained from wall of cyst, showing an ependymal-lined wall without any evidence of neoplastic proliferation (H and E, ×400)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Embryologic development of the distal spinal cord. Central canal indicates central canal and neural tube (a) vacuolization. Small vacuoles (V green) form in the caudal cell mass (brown). (b) Canalization. The small vacuoles fuse to form a dilated ependymal-lined tube, which usually merges with the more rostral central canal. (c) Retrogressive differentiation. The dilated ependymal-lined canal becomes the ventriculus terminalis. FT indicates the filum terminale
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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