CT cisternography in the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial arachnoid cyst

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the value of CT cisternography (CTC) in the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial arachnoid cysts (IAC). Methods CTC was performed on 23 patients with IAC, admitted to our hospital from October 2006 to October 2009. Patients with non-communicating intracranial arachnoid cysts (NCIAC) accepted endoscopic neurosurgery and those with communicating intracranial arachnoid cysts (CIAC) accepted conservative treatment. CT, MRI and CTC were performed on these patients before and after the treatment; the value of CTC in the diagnosis and treatment of IAC and the effect of neurosurgery in the treatment of NCIAC were analyzed, respectively. Results CTC conformed that 17 patients (17/23) had NCIAC and 6 (6/23) had CIAC. All of the NCIAC patients were performed neuroendoscopic surgery: the cyst of 1 patient disappeared; that of 13 shrunk and that of 3 did not changed. Postoperative CTC demonstrated that all the cysts of the 8 patients communicated well with the cistern. Conclusion CTC is very important in the diagnosis of IAC,especially in the differentialdiagnosis of NCIAC and CIAC. The result of CTC can be an indicator in determining the necessity of operation in patients with cranial cysts and give a primary evaluation on the effect of cranial cyst surgery. Key words: CT cisternography; Arachnoid cyst; Diagnosis; Treatment