We present a novel method of performing an 'open-door' cervical laminoplasty. The complete laminotomy is sited on alternate sides at successive levels, thereby allowing the posterior arch to be elevated to alternate sides. Foraminotomies can be carried out on either side to relieve root compression. The midline structures are preserved. We undertook this procedure in 23 elderly patients with a spondylotic myelopathy. Each was assessed clinically

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension is the persistent increase in intracranial pressure in the absence of any intracranial lesions. Brain edema occurs due to the lesion of the hematoencephalic barrier, resulting in an increased flow of interstitial fluid, with an increase in intraparenchymatous pressure . The parenchymatous pressure is reduced by the increased resorbtion of interstial fluid and/or by its movement into the cerebral ventricles. The

Intracranial hypertension is initially an alarm signal for the increased ICP; later the increase in intracranial pressure is accompanied by symptoms and there is the ICH syndrome; later on the increase in ICP becomes a pathogenic mechanism in itself and intracranial hypertension appears as an acute disease. The pattern of ICH includes a three-phase evolution; the pressure-time fluctuation is the dynamic element in the progression and decompensation

Intracranial hypertension is one of the most important syndromes in neurologyand neurosurgery; raised intracranial pressure is the most commoncause of death in neurosurgery. A recent classification of intracranialhypertensionis based upon the etiopathogenesis of intracranialhypertension: a) parenchymatous intracranial hypertension, b) vascularintracranial hypertension, c) meningeal intracranial hypertension and d) idiopathicintracranial hypertension.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IdICH) is a high intracranial pressure and no evidence of intracranial lesions or hydrocephalus. The characteristics of IdICH and the anatomical and physiological data show that the mechanisms of elaboration of the interstitial fluid at blood-brain barrier (BBB) and of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at choroid plexus are very similarly. In IdICH many pathological conditions can induce the simultaneous hypersecretion

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IDICH) and idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (IDNPH) are disorders of the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with opposite diagnostic features, obscure etiology but the same treatment: CSF drainage. In both diseases a large quantity of CSF exists: equilibrated by the brain edema in IdICH with high ICP and not equilibrated by brain pressure, and the ventricles are enlarged in IdNPH. The same anatomical