Abstract
We describe six patients with retroodontoid pseudotumor and cervical myelopathy treated by surgery. Two patients had rheumatoid arthritis and two had previously undergone cervical laminoplasty. Occipitocervical posterior fusion and laminectomy of the atlas were performed in all patients, and this led to pseudotumor regression and neurological improvement in all cases. One hundred and one patients underwent spinous process-splitting cervical laminoplasty and were followed up for over one year at our hospital. In eleven patients, retroodontoid pseudotumor progressed, and in three patients the spinal cord was compressed. In these patients, long-term mechanical stress on the occipitoaxis through a decrease of ROM in the middle and lower cervical spine was thought to have been responsible for progression of the pseudotumor.
