of the foramina of luschka and magendie, now no longer believed to be significant. the term dandy–walker syndrome (dws) was introduced by german psychiatrist clemens ernst benda in 1954; he also used the term dandy–walker malformation once. in 1976, harwood-nash and fitz proposed the term dandy–walker variant (dwv) for a malformation in which the posterior fossa is not enlarged but the cerebellar vermis is hypoplastic. in 1989, barkovich et al. proposed the term dandy–walker complex (dwc) to include classic dwm and dwv (under type a) plus a third malformation (under type b) in which the cerebellar vermis remains large enough to sit between the fourth ventricle and the cisterna magna, and instead it is mostly the cisterna magna that is enlarged (sometimes diagnosed as "mega cisterna magna"). in 1999, calabró et al. first used the phrase dandy–walker continuum when referring to proposals that a condition known as blake's pouch cyst falls under the umbrella of the dandy–walker complex proposed by barkovich. these additional terms are mostly discouraged by modern authors due to additional confusion and complexity to the diagnosis of dwm.