PATHOGENESIS OF SYRINGOMYELIA

Abstract

Although cavity formation in the spinal cord was described first by Estienne (or Stephanus), a pupil of Sylvius, in 1545, and later by Morgagni, the term "syringomyelia" was suggested by Olivier d'Angers in his "Treatise on the Spinal Cord and Its Diseases," in 1837. He applied the term not to a specific pathologic entity but to any cavity or canal in the cord. He expressed the belief that the presence of a central canal was abnormal. It was not until 1859, when Stilling began the investigation of the development of the canal, that d'Angers' conception was disproved. Among the earlier modern theories was that suggested by Hallopeau,¹who expressed the opinion that certain types of myelitis resulted in cavity formation; he concluded that the primary lesion was sclerosis in the region of the central canal. Virchow and Leyden²later maintained that all medullary cavities were really offshoots of