Abstract:

Objective   To explore the surgical indication of intracranial arachnoid cyst. Methods   72 cases treated with ICA in our hospital from January 2007 to April 2011 were collected with CT scan, including 46 cases with CTC. Changes of symptoms and imaging were detected and compared by statistical methods. Follow-up of the patients was also carried out. Results   All the cases were diagnosed for ICA by brain CT scan, including 45 cases with operation and 27 cases without operation. The CTC taken in 46 cases showed that 13 cases were communicating intracranial arachnoid cyst (CICA) and 33 cases were non-communicating intracranial arachnoid cyst (NCICA). After surgery, the clinical symptoms were improved by different degrees with no serious complications. The results of statistical analysis demonstrated that the preoperative incidence of headache and epilepsy decreased greatly than post-operation (P<0.05) and the cyst size was reduced significantly (P<0.01). Conclusion    The CT scanning and computed tomographic cisternography  are vital for the diagnosis of the intracranial arachnoid cysts  and evaluation of the surgical indications.  The absolute surgical indications of IAC patients include the noncommunicating intracranial arachnoid cyst  with definite clinical symptoms; while the relative indications contain the communicating intracranial arachnoid cyst  with progressing symptoms or increased cyst shown on CT scanning.

Key words: Intracranial arachnoid cyst; Computed tomographic cisternography; Clinical symptom; Surgical indication