We Are Cautious to Use the Term, ‘Split Cord Malformation Type 1.5’

Article information

J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 2022;65(5):763-763

Publication date (electronic) : 2022 August 22

doi : https://doi.org/10.3340/jkns.2022.0058

Mengchun Sun^1,2, Benzhang Tao¹, Tianbao Luo³, Gan Gao¹, Aijia Shang^,1

¹Department of Neurosurgery, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

²Medical School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

³Department of Neurosurgery, Yuquan Hospital, Beijing, China

Address for reprints : Aijia Shang Department of Neurosurgery, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China Tel : +86-10 66875540, Fax : +86-10 57976556, E-mail : shangaj@126.com

Thank you for your insightful and meaningful comments on our article. Indeed, we agree with you that the nomenclature of “type 1.5 split cord malformation (SCM)” is still controversial. Reviewing the literature, we found that different authors have proposed various terms to name this special subtype of SCM [1-3], but there is still no acknowledged nomenclature. We recommend the use of “type 1.5 SCM” because this subtype contains both characteristics of type 1 and 2 SCM, that is a bony septum of type 1 and a single dura sac of type 2, and we consider that this term can directly reflect its morphological features. Therefore, we think that the use of “type 1.5 SCM” is not comparable with “type 1.5 Chiari malformation”, which shows severity of the disease. Both two nomenclatures have their own rationality. We believe that clinicians will deeply understand the characteristics of this special subtype with the identification of more similar cases, and a normative term will be achieved.