HEADACHE AND CHIARI-I MALFORMATION IN THE PEDIATRIC POPULATION

There has been disagreement regarding surgical intervention in treatin g pediatric patients with Chiari I malformation with headache as sole complaint. Therefore, we retrospectively reviewed our experience over a 6-year period, with patients less than 5 years of age (mean = 34.8 m onths) with radiographically confirmed Chiari I malformation. We ident ified 7 patients who presented with headaches as their only complaint. The headaches varied in location and severity. All patients were trea ted with posterior fossa decompression and syringosubarachnoid shunt w hen indicated. At follow-up, all patients were noted to have rapid cli nical improvement (mean = 11.6 weeks) and remain asymptomatic. Our dat a suggest that patients less than 5 years of age with Chiari I malform ation benefit from surgical decompression when presenting with a chief complaint of headache.