Within three weeks of definitive surgical intervention, 467 patients with histologically proved malignant glioma were randomized to receive one of four treatment regimens: semustine (MeCCNU), radiotherapy, carmustine (BCNU) plus radiotherapy, or semustine plus radiotherapy. We analyzed the data for the total randomized population and for the 358 patients in whom the initial protocol specifications were met (the valid study group). Observed toxicity included acceptable skin reactions secondary to radiotherapy and reversible leukopenia and thrombocytopenia due to chemotherapy. Radiotherapy used alone or in combination with a nitrosourea significantly improved survival in comparison with semustine alone. The group receiving carmustine plus radiotherapy had the best survival, but the difference in survival between the groups receiving carmustine plus radiotherapy and semustine plus radiotherapy was not statistically significant. The combination of carmustine plus radiotherapy produced a modest benefit in long-term (18-month) survival as compared with radiotherapy alone, although the difference between survival curves was not significiant at the 0.05 level. This study suggests that it is best to use radiotherapy in the post-surgical treatment of malignant glioma and to continue the search for an effective chemotherapeutic regimen to use in addition to radiotherapy.

The authors conducted a retrospective study of 107 patients treated for syringomyelia associated with arachnoid scarring between 1976 and 1995 at the Departments of Neurosurgery at the Nordstadt Hospital in Hannover, Germany, and the University of California in Los Angeles, California. Twenty-nine patients have not been surgically treated to date because of their stable neurological status. Seventy-eight patients with progressive neurological deficits underwent a total of 121 surgical procedures and were followed for a mean period of 32 (+/- 37) months. All patients demonstrated arachnoid scarring at a level close to the syrinx. In 52 patients the arachnoid scarring was related to spinal trauma, whereas 55 had no history of trauma and developed arachnoid scarring was a result of an inflammatory reaction. Of these, 15 patients had undergone intradural surgery, eight had suffered from spinal meningitis, three had undergone peridural anesthesia, and one each presented with a history of osteomyelitis, spondylodiscitis, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. No obvious cause for the inflammatory reaction resulting in arachnoid scarring could be ascertained for the remaining 26 patients. The postoperative neurological outcome correlated with the severity of arachnoid pathology and the type of surgery performed. Shunting of the syrinx to the subarachnoid, pleural, or peritoneal cavity was associated with recurrence rates of 92% and 100% for focal and extensive scarring, respectively. Successful long-term management of the syrinx required microsurgical dissection of the arachnoid scar and decompression of the subarachnoid space with a fascia lata graft. This operation stabilized the preoperative progressive neurological course in 83% of patients with a focal arachnoid scar. For patients with extensive arachnoid scarring over multiple spinal levels or after previous surgery, clinical stabilization was achieved in only 17% with this technique.

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