• World Neurosurg · Jun 2022

    Diseased filum terminale as a cause of tethered cord syndrome in Ehlers Danlos syndrome: histopathology, biomechanics, clinical presentation, and outcome of filum excision.

    • Petra M Klinge, Vikas Srivastava, Abigail McElroy, Owen P Leary, Zahra Ahmed, John E Donahue, Thomas Brinker, Philippe De Vloo, and Ziya L Gokaslan.
    • Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Electronic address: petra_klinge@brown.edu.
    • World Neurosurg. 2022 Jun 1; 162: e492e502e492-e502.

    BackgroundPatients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), a heritable connective tissue disorder, present frequently with symptoms of tethered cord syndrome (TCS) but without a low-lying conus. Currently, surgical treatment of such cases is controversial. Because connective tissue disorder affects fibrous structures, we hypothesized that a diseased filum terminale (FT) might cause TCS in hEDS, justifying surgical transection for treatment.MethodsWe investigated FT pathology, FT biomechanics, clinical presentation, and outcome following FT excision in 78 radiologically occult hEDS-TCS cases and for comparison in 38 typical TCS cases with low-lying conus and/or fatty FT infiltration but without hEDS.ResultsIn hEDS-TCS, electron microscopy revealed inherited collagen fibril abnormalities and acquired fibril damage. Biomechanical tension tests revealed elastic properties of the FT in both study groups, but they were impaired in the hEDS TCS. Follow-up examinations at 3 and 12 months after FT excision showed statistically significant improvement of urinary, bowel, and neurologic symptoms in both study groups; intergroup comparison revealed no differences in outcome except more pronounced neurologic improvement in the hEDS-TCS group.ConclusionsBoth morphologic findings and biomechanical tests indicate limited elastic properties of the FT in hEDS, which is no more able to dampen but still transmitting spine movement-related stretch forces. That mechanism exposes the conus medullaris to unphysiologic stretch forces, causing TCS, especially when considering the hypermobile spine in hEDS. This notion is supported by the observed clinical improvement following FT resection in hEDS-TCS cases without a low-lying conus.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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