Abstract
A spinal subdural hygroma is a rare entity. In this review, we try to contribute to the pooling of current knowledge about spinal subdural hygroma, from embryology and physiology until radiological detection and treatment. The relevant articles in the literature regarding spinal subdural hygroma were reviewed, using a sensitive search strategy on Internet databases. A spinal subdural hygroma is associated with trauma, iatrogenic causes, spontaneous intracranial hypotension headache, and probably meningitis. MR imaging is the golden standard for diagnosis. Treatment of the hygroma is almost always conservative and surgery is seldom necessary, however treating the underlying cause is important. The physiology, in spite of numerous suggestions and hypotheses in literature, remains unclear. The prevalence of spinal subdural hygroma is also still unknown. Only a few articles deal with spinal subdural hygroma, because it is an uncommon entity, without specific symptoms. Probably it is often not diagnosed because of the frequent association with other cranial or spinal pathologies and the need for high-resolution imaging. More research is required to examine the prevalence, importance, and pathophysiology of spinal subdural hygroma.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Mack J, Squier W, Eastman JT (2009) Anatomy and development of the meninges: implications for subdural collections and CSF circulation. Pediatr Radiol 39:200–210
Rico-santos M, Villafani J, Sáiz A, Nacarino PO (2015) Progressive back pain due to epidural hygroma: an infrequent complication of lumbar puncture in adults. BMJ Case Rep 2:1–2
Mokri B (2001) The Monro-Kellie hypothesis: applications in CSF volume depletion. Neurology 56(12):1746–1748
Wilson MH (2016) Monro-Kellie 2.0: the dynamic vascular and venous pathophysiological components of intracranial pressure. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 36(8):1338–1350
Medina JH, Abrams K, Falcone S, Bhatia RG (2010) Spinal imaging findings in spontaneous intracranial hypotension. Am J Roentgenol 195(2):459–464
Anatomy S (2016) Anatomy of the spinal meninges. Oper Neurosurg 12(2):168–188
Drake RL, Vogl AW, Mitchell AWM (2010) Gray’s anatomy for students. Elsevier Inc, Amsterdam
Darwish HA, Oldfield EH (2016) Lumbar subdural cerebrospinal fluid collection with acute cauda equina syndrome after posterior fossa decompression for Chiari malformation Type I: case report. J Neurosurg Spine 25:328–331
Lee KS (1998) The pathogenesis and clinical significance of traumatic subdural hygroma. Brain Inj 12(7):595–603
Yousry I et al (2001) Cervical MR imaging in postural headache: MR signs and pathophysiological implications. Am J Neuroradiol 22(7):1239–1250
Kranz PG, Luetmer PH, Diehn FE, Amrhein TJ, Tanpitukpongse TP, Gray L (2016) Myelographic techniques for the detection of spinal CSF leaks in spontaneous intracranial hypotension. Am J Roentgenol 206(1):8–19
Schievink W, Jacques L (2003) Recurrent spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid leak associated with ‘nude nerve root’ syndrome: case report. Neurosurgery 53(5):1216–1219
Schievink W, Morreale V, Atkinson J, Meyer F, Piepgras D, Ebersold M (1998) Surgical treatment of spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid leaks. J Neurosurg 88(2):243–246
Schievink WI (2006) Spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid and ongoing investigations in this area. JAMA 295(19):2286–2296
Kranz PG, Amrhein TJ, Gray L (2017) CSF venous fistulas in spontaneous intracranial hypotension: imaging characteristics on dynamic and CT myelography. Am J Roentgenol 2:1–7
Wang X et al (2015) Surgical treatments for infantile purulent meningitis complicated by subdural effusion. Med Sci Monit 21:3166–3171
Osborn AG (2013) Osborn’s brain: imaging, pathology and anatomy. Amirsys, Salt Lake city
Khurana A, Brousil J, Russo A, Evans A, Quraishi NA, Boszczyk BM (2013) Intracranial hypotension with a sixth cranial nerve palsy subsequent to massive thoracic CSF hygroma: a rare complication of thoracic disc excision. Eur Spine J 22(9):2047–2054
Singleton WGB, Ramnarine D, Patel N, Wigfield C (2011) Post-operative spinal subdural extra-arachnoid hygroma causing cauda equina compression: a report of two cases. Br J Neurosurg 8697:22085250
Elder BD, Ishida W, Goodwin RC, Bydon A (2017) Iatrogenic spinal subdural extra-arachnoid hygroma following uncomplicated lumbar decompression. Cureus 9(4):1–6
Uzuki FS, Itagawa TK, Akagi KT, Ozaki KN (2011) Subacute subdural hygroma and presyrinx formation after foramen magnum decompression with duraplasty for chiari type 1 malformation. Neurol Med Chir 51:389–393
Zachenhofer I, Donat M, Roessler K (2012) The combination of a programmable valve and a subclavicular anti-gravity device in hydrocephalus patients at high risk for hygromas. Neurol Res 34(3):219–222
Openshaw H, Ressler JA, Snyder DS (2008) Lumbar puncture and subdural hygroma and hematomas in hematopoietic cell transplant patients. Bone Marrow Transplant. 41(9):791–795
Staudinger T et al (1998) subdural hygromas after bone marrow transplantation: results of a prospective study. Transplantation 65(10):1340–1344
van den Berg JSP, Sijbrandy SE, Meijer AH, Oostdijk AH (2002) Subdural hygroma: a rare complication of spinal anesthesia. Anesth Analg 94(6):1625–1627
Vien C, Marovic P, Ingram B (2016) Case report epidural anesthesia complicated by subdural hygromas and a subdural hematoma. 1:1–5
Fishman R, Dillon W (1993) Dural enhancement and cerebral displacement secondary to intracranial hypotension. Neurology 43(3):609–611
Schievink WI, Maya MM, Moser FG, Tourje J (2005) Spectrum of subdural fluid collections in spontaneous intracranial hypotension. J Neurosurg 103(4):608–613
Weindling SM, Kotsenas AL (2005) Spontaneous craniospinal hypotension. J Magn Reson Imaging 22(6):804–809
Bonneville JF, Cattin F, Bonneville F (2011) Enlargement of the inferior intercavernous sinus: a new sign for the diagnosis of craniospinal hypotension. Am J Neuroradiol 32(10):2011
Smith M, Dormont R, Prather G (1951) Subdural effusions complicating bacterial meningitis. Pediatrics 7:34
Kumar R, Arora G, Bal C, Sharma P, Mishra A, Tripathi M (2013) Post meningitis subdural hygroma: anatomical and functional evaluation with 99m Tc-ehylene cysteine dimer single photon emission tomography/computed tomography. Indian J Nucl Med 28(1):23
Idowu OE, Olumide AA (2009) Hydrocephalus and subdural effusion with extracranial extension complicating meningitis. J Trop Pediatr 56(5):348–350
Hobbs C, Childs A-M, Wynne J, Livingston J, Seal A (2005) Subdural haematoma and effusion in infancy: an epidemiological study. Arch Dis Child 90(9):952–955
Fobben S, Hackney DB, Zimmerman RA, Bilaniuk LT (1989) MR characteristics hematomas and of subdural hygromas at 1.5 T. Am J Neuroradiol 153:589–595
Lee KS (2016) Chronic subdural hematoma in the aged, trauma or degeneration? J Korean Neurosurg Soc 59(1):1–5
Ahn JH et al (2016) Analysis of risk factor for the development of chronic subdural hematoma in patients with traumatic subdural hygroma. 59(6):622–627
Bortolotti C, Wang H, Fraser K, Lanzino G (2004) Subacute spinal subdural hematoma after spontaneous resolution of cranial subdural hematoma: causal relationship or coincidence? Case report. J Neurosurg 100(4):372–374
Moscovici S et al (2011) Do cranial subdural hematomas migrate to the lumbar spine? J Clin Neurosci 18(4):563–565
Li C, Yew A, Lu D (2013) Migration of traumatic intracranial subdural hematoma to lumbar spine causing radiculopathy. Surg Neurol Int 4(1):81
Pham MH, Tuchman A, Platt A, Hsieh PC (2016) Intracranial complications associated with spinal surgery. Eur Spine J 25:888–894
Davidson B et al (2017) Spontaneous intracranial hypotension: a review and introduction of an algorithm for management. World Neurosurg 101:343–349
Shi B, Zheng X, Min S, Zhou Z, Ding Z, Jin A (2014) The morphology and clinical significance of the dorsal meningovertebra ligaments in the cervical epidural space. Spine J 14(11):2733–2739
Beck J et al (2017) Cerebrospinal fluid outflow resistance as a diagnostic marker of spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leakage. J Neurosurg Spine 27(August):227–234
Parmar H, Park P, Brahma B, Gandhi D (2008) Imaging of Idiopathic Spinal Cord Herniation. Radiographics 28(2):511–8
Berg-Johnsen J, Ilstad E, Kolstad F, Züchner M, Sundseth J (2014) Idiopathic ventral spinal cord herniation: an increasingly recognized cause of thoracic myelopathy. J Cent Nerv Syst Dis 6:85–91
Yi CK, Biega TJ, Burgos RM (2014) Spontaneous resolution of idiopathic lumbar subdural hygroma on CT myelography and lumbar spine MRI. BMJ Case Rep. bcr2014206223
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sneyers, B., Ramboer, K. Spinal subdural hygroma. Acta Neurol Belg 121, 311–319 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-020-01558-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-020-01558-1