Anterior Cervical Intradural Arachnoid Cyst - A Rare Cause of Spinal Cord Compression

Abstract

BACKGROUND Arachnoid cysts of spinal cord are relatively uncommon lesions. Most of them arise dorsal to the cord, and anteriorly placed intradural arachnoid cyst is a rare cause of cervical cord compression. To the best of our knowledge, only 30 cases were reported in the literature. We present a case of anterior cervical intradural arachnoid cyst with review of literature. METHODS We performed a literature search for anteriorly placed intradural arachnoid cysts in the cervical spinal cord through http://pubmed.com, a well-known worldwide internet medical address. To the best of our knowledge, only 30 cases were reported in the literature. We reviewed the literature with illustration of our case. We present a case of a 40-year-old male patient who presented with insidious onset of radicular pain. MRI cervical spine demonstrated cervical intradural cystic lesion extending from C2 to upper border of C4, lying anteriorly with compression over the cord. Cervical laminectomy followed by wide cyst fenestration and subtotal excision of cyst was done. Histopathological diagnosis was arachnoid cyst. RESULTS Patient totally recovered from his pain and sensory symptoms within a week and motor symptoms improved gradually over a period of six to eight weeks. With two years followup, patient had no further complaints. CONCLUSION Anterior cervical intradural arachnoid cysts are rare. These are amenable to resection through posterior approach safely with good postoperative recovery.