[Late manifestation of alternating Horner's signs in spinal cord injury due to dura-cord adhesion (author's transl)].

It has been said that late manifestation of transient alternating Horner's signs in cases of spinal cord injury is caused by intramedullary cavity formation in which some movement of fluid stimulates the sympathetic system corresponding to their positioning. We had a patient complaining of alternating Horner's signs which became manifest 8 years after the injury. We could not find any intramedullary cavity formation, in spite of a spinal puncture at operation, but the symptoms made a striking improvement after the operation simply by making free the spinal cord from the dura mater at operation. So we suppose that late manifestation of transient alternating Horner's signs will be manifested not only in cases of intramedullary cavity, but also in cases of dense adhesion between the spinal cord and the dura mater. In addition to this, we propose the new term "Poromyelia" for the intramedullary cavity because of its resemblance to "Porencephalia" in the cerebrum, and because of the confusing usage of the word "Syringomyelia" for this condition of "Poromyelia". It has been said that "Syringomyelia" in the spinal cord is similar to "Hydrocephalia" in the cerebrum.