Syringomyelia (Greek: 'syrinx,' pipe, and 'myelos,' marrow) is a tubular cavity in the spinal cord. It can occur sporadically in association with spinal cord tumors, inflammatory arachnoiditis, or posttraumatically. It is rarely idiopathic (less than 1% of cases). The vast majority of cases of syringomyelia are cervical, noncommunicating, and associated with an abnormality at the foramen magnum, particularly the Chiari malformation type I (CM1; 118420), as well as basilar impression (109500) and Dandy-Walker malformation (220200) (Speer et al., 2003; Levine, 2004); these cases have shown familial segregation.
The form of syringomyelia discussed here is 'noncommunicating' with the fourth ventricle, but may communicate with the subarachnoid space. In contrast, 'communicating' syringomyelia, or 'hydromelia,' opens rostrally into the fourth ventricle and almost always occurs in children with hydrocephalus, Chiari malformation type II (CM2; 207950), and spina bifida (see 182940) (Levine, 2004). [from
OMIM]