Cervical kyphotic myelopathy in a child with Morquio syndrome.

A child with Morquio syndrome developed severe cervical kyphosis causing myelopathy. Decompression of the spinal cord was accomplished by an anterior approach using multilevel corpectomies and stabilization with calvarial bone grafts and halo immobilization. The case reported is unique in that cervical cord compression resulted from an uncommon degree of cervical kyphosis rather than the usual atlantoaxial instability seen in patients with Morquio syndrome. The operative procedure described shows another example of the usefulness of calvarial bone grafts for cervical spine fusions in children.