Apparently benign craniocervical signs in achondroplasia: "neurologic leftovers" identified through a retrospective dataset.

It appears that many individuals with achondroplasia, if carefully examined, may demonstrate isolated, initially concerning signs suggestive of cervical myelopathy, but in the vast majority these are benign and do not indicate need for aggressive neurosurgical intervention. Further investigations may help to identify ways to differentiate these benign features from the less common but more problematic true myelopathic ones. We postulate that the "neurologic leftovers" may arise from temporally remote, subtle damage to the spinal cord at the craniocervical junction, which damage otherwise does not reach clinical relevance.