Impaired Peripheral Chemosensitivity and Acute Respiratory Failure in Arnold-Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia

Abstract

THE mechanism of alveolar hypoventilation complicating diseases of the central nervous system has generally been undefined or attributed to dysfunction of the medullary respiratory center.Studies of a patient with syringomyelia and Arnold-Chiari malformation, in whom an episode of nonprogressive pneumonia precipitated respiratory failure despite adequate ventilatory capacity, indicated that this complication was probably attributable to a total absence of hypoxic ventilatory drive due to cranial-nerve dysfunction that interrupted peripheral chemoreceptor afferents.Case ReportAn 18-year-old man with the diagnosis of Arnold-Chiari malformation and syringomyelia treated in 1970 with subtotal craniectomy and spinopleural shunt was admitted to Colorado General Hospital . . .