Carbone John, Sadasivan Ananthababu Pattavilakom
Department of Neurosurgery, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia.
Surg Neurol Int. 2021 Dec 20;12:621. doi: 10.25259/SNI_946_2021. eCollection 2021.
With a prevalence of 1.4%, intracranial arachnoid cysts are a frequent incidental finding on MRI and CT. Whilst most cysts are benign in the long-term, clinical practice, and imaging frequency does not necessarily reflect this.
A literature review was conducted searching the Medline database with MESH terms. This literature was condensed into an article, edited by a consultant neurosurgeon. This was further condensed, presented to the neurosurgery department at Princess Alexandra Hospital for final feedback and editing.
This review advises that asymptomatic patients with typical cysts have a low risk of cyst growth and development of new symptomatology, thus do not require surveillance or intervention. The minority of symptomatic patients or those with cysts in sensitive areas may require referral to a neurosurgeon for clinical follow-up or intervention.
Greater than 94% of patients are asymptomatic, practitioners can be confident in reassuring patients of the benign nature of a potentially worrying finding. Recognizing the small number of symptomatic patients and those with cysts in areas sensitive to causing hydrocephalus is where GP decision making in conjunction with specialty input is of highest yield.
颅内蛛网膜囊肿的患病率为1.4%，是MRI和CT检查中常见的偶然发现。虽然大多数囊肿长期来看是良性的，但临床实践和成像频率不一定能反映这一点。
使用医学主题词在Medline数据库中进行文献检索。这些文献被浓缩成一篇文章，由一位神经外科顾问编辑。进一步浓缩后，提交给亚历山德拉公主医院神经外科进行最终反馈和编辑。
本综述建议，患有典型囊肿的无症状患者囊肿生长及出现新症状的风险较低，因此无需监测或干预。少数有症状的患者或囊肿位于敏感区域的患者可能需要转诊给神经外科医生进行临床随访或干预。
超过94%的患者无症状，从业者可以放心地向患者保证一个可能令人担忧的发现的良性性质。认识到少数有症状的患者以及囊肿位于易导致脑积水的敏感区域的患者，是全科医生结合专科意见做出决策最有成效的地方。
