Surgical anatomy of a neurenteric cyst anterior to the brainstem

The authors report on a sixteen-month old boy who presented a neurenteric cyst located in the cervicomedullary junction, anterior to the brain stem. Centred on the ventral aspect of the premedullary cistern, the cyst extended from the prepontine space to the cervicomedullary junction, causing important brain stem compression. The lesion was totally removed via a posterior approach with suboccipital craniotomy and laminectomy of C1. After surgery the patient recovered his neurological function and the postoperative MRI showed total resection of the cyst.