Most of the patients healed with a rigid fusion no matter which graft was used, but the healing process took longer than expected. The clinical results were not influenced by whether mobility could be demonstrated. There was a tendency toward better clinical results in the patients treated with autograft.

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Surgically treated patients experienced pain reduction which was partially maintained for at least 24 months. A sustained improvement in the health status measured by SIP was observed only among operated patients that were not referred via the social insurance offices.

Perfusion tests were performed in dogs with a pedicle graft of the greater omentum implanted in the lumbar subarachnoid space to measure its capacity to drain CSF. The CSF pressure was set at different levels in the range 0--50 mmHg and the outflow from a complete CSF space and then from the isolated dural sac was recorded in the same dog with an electronic drop recorder. It was shown that the omental graft could transport as much as 30% of the CSF normally carried by the physiological pathways. The spinal outflow in the controls was virtually non-existent. It is concluded that a bulk flow of CSF occurs through the graft. The results suggest that a lumbo-omental pedicle graft could possibly be used as a biological shunt in the treatment of hydrocephalus.

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The atlantoaxial joints of nine cadavers were examined with Amipaque. A lateral percutaneous approach was elaborated. Interarticular communications and pertinent anatomical features were analyzed.

With 5 FiguresEkbom et al. (1969) recently reported high blood pressure and epilepsy in conjunction with hydrocephalus due to ectasia of the basilar artery. The generalized alterations of the blood vessels as well as hypothalamie damage due to deformity of the third ventricle by the elongated basilar artery were considered aetiologieal factors in the development of the high blood pressure in these patients. If epilepsy and hypertension were due not to the vascular changes but to the dilatation of the ventricular system, these should occur also in other types of hydrocephalus. In order to analyse this question we have reviewed the clinical records and air studies--pneumoeneephalograms and ventriculograms--in a group of patients with aqueduct stenosis. Material and MethodsThe clinical records of 124 patients with a diagnosis of aqueduct stenosis were examined. Their ages varied from 1 month to 67 years, with an average of 19,7 (Fig. 1). The records were scrutinized with special emphasis on the occurrence of epilepsy and on the blood pressure records. In the Department of Neurosurgery blood pressure measurements have been made with the patients lying in bed, using conventional pressure-cuff sphygmomanometers. A resting blood pressure value preceding encephalography was obtained in 91 patients. Papilloedema was present in 35 eases. The CSFpressure was measured only in 3 eases.