Syringomyelia - history

UW Medicine - Chiari Malformation Clinic

Syringomyelia is derived from the Greek words, syrinx (meaning tube or pipe) and muelos (meaning marrow).

In 1546, Estienne, from France, first described the spinal cord cavitation, known currently as syringomyelia, in human cadavers.

In 1824, Charles Ollivier d'Angers provided the very descriptive name "syringomyelia" to the cylindrical dilatation of the spinal cord, which in his illustrative case report, communicated with the fourth ventricle.

In 1892, Abbe and Coley from New York performed a myelotomy (small cut into the spinal cord) to drain the syrinx cavity. This was the first recorded surgical procedure to treat syringomyelia.

	Remember...
	that syringomyelia can be a difficult word to pronounce, but in no-time you can be rattling it off like nothing else! It goes just like this: "sear-ing-go-my-eelya".