Suboccipital craniotomy in the surgical treatment of Chiari I malformation

OBJECT: The object of this study was to present craniotomy for Chiari type I patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six patients with Chiari type I underwent suboccipital craniotomy. All patients showed clinical improvement, and none had any complications. Two patients had syringomyelia; it disappeared in entirety. We describe the procedure for posterior fossa decompression. RESULTS: Three-dimensional volumetric analysis using Vitrea workstation for postoperative posterior fossa volumes was calculated and was seen to have been increased on an average, from pre-operative (168 cc) to postoperative volume (192 cc). CONCLUSION: We thus conclude that suboccipital craniotomy results in resolution of the Chiari symptoms yet achieves effective expansion of posterior fossa.