[A case of traumatic syringomyelia which disappeared after anterior decompression: a suggestion for surgical treatment of syringomyelia].

A 37-year-old man had received cervical spinal-cord injury 20 years previously. Recently, he complained of progressive spastic gait and was shown to have fracture dislocation of the C5 vertebral body which compressed the spinal cord posteriorly. He also had a syrinx from the C5 to C2 vertebral level. Postoperatively, this syrinx disappeared after anterior decompression of the C4 and C5 vertebral bodies. Such a case as this has never been reported, and this case may give a suggestion for surgical treatment of syringomyelia, because it is very natural that the most reasonable treatment of any disease is removal of the cause.