Pathogenesis of Arachnoid Cyst: Congenital or Traumatic?

• Published in: Pediatric neurosurgery Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 260 - 266
• Main Authors: Choi, Joong-Uhn, Kim, Dong-Seok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Karger 01.11.1998; S. Karger AG
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Arachnoid Cysts - etiology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child, Preschool; Craniocerebral Trauma - complications; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neurology; Original Paper; Retrospective Studies; Tumors of the nervous system. Phacomatoses; Arachnoid cyst; Endoscopic procedure; Infancy; Congenital origin; Pathogenesis; Trauma; Human; Intracranial; Nervous system diseases; Congenital; Craniocerebral; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Arachnoidal cyst; Cerebral disorder; Central nervous system disease; Skull disease; Benign neoplasm; Child
• ISSN: 1016-2291; 1423-0305
• DOI: 10.1159/000028733

For clarifying the pathophysiology of arachnoid cysts and restablishing therapeutic criteria for such cases, we reviewed a series of 90 cases with arachnoid cysts focusing on the traumatic origin. Arachnoid cysts of congenital origin have been well known. But we suspected that 14 out of 90 patients (15.6%) with arachnoid cyst were closely related to head trauma. Seven of them suffered from head traumas in infancy. The episodes of head trauma included falling down in 4 patients, slipping down in 2 patients, and a motor vehicle accident in 1 patient. Traumatic arachnoid cysts had a latent period from head trauma to initial clinical manifestation. The mean latent period was 2.2 years, ranging from 10 months to 6.2 years. Six of 7 arachnoid cysts were located in the suprasellar area and 1 at the posterior fossa. An other 7 patients had a history of perinatal trauma. We postulate that head trauma in infancy may contribute to the pathogenesis of arachnoid cyst in some cases.