Mengchun Sun1,2, Benzhang Tao1, Tianbao Luo3, Gan Gao1, Aijia Shang1. 1. Department of Neurosurgery, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China. 2. Medical School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. 3. Department of Neurosurgery, Yuquan Hospital, Beijing, China.
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.