Abstract: Objective To analyze MRI manifestations of post-traumatic syringomyelia and its formation mechanism.Methods A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 31 patients with post-traumatic syringomyelia was carried out.Morphous and signal features of spinal cord and syringomyelia was observed by MRI.Results Among 31 patients,11 cases had syrinx extending to cervical cord,6 cases extending to cervicothoracic cord,4 cases extending to thoracic cord,5 cases extending to thoracolumbar cord,5 cases extending to whole spinal cord.5 cases of 31 patients had syrinx ascending to medulla oblongata,1 cases ascending to pons.The post-traumatic syringomyelia had signal intensities similar to cerebrospinal fluid on T₁-weighted sequences and uniformed or ununiformed signals of increased intensity on T₂-weighted sequences.23 cases of all patients can demonstrate adhesion and traumatic tethering by MRI.Conclusion MRI can not only demonstrate the characteristics of post-traumatic syringomyelia but also describe the range of spinal cord,arachnoid and dura mater adhesions,which is of value in deciding how to perform operations.

Key words: spinal cord injury, post-traumatic syringomyelia, magnetic resonance imaging