Complete thoracic myelocystocele: a rare benign spinal dysraphism with clinical significance
- 1Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- 2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Correspondence to Dr Rebecca Brooks Carmody, Department of Neonatology, University of Virginia, 1215 LEE Street, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; medhoo07{at}gmail.com
- Received 9 September 2011
- Accepted 24 October 2011
- Published Online First 13 November 2011
Complete thoracic myelocystocele (figure 1) is a rare non-terminal closed spinal dysraphism associated with normal neurological outcomes following repair.1 2 The cystic lesion was noted at 19 weeks of gestation on routine transabdominal ultrasound (figure 2), but misdiagnosed as myelomeningocele. The distinction is critical since the latter is associated with lower extremity paralysis and sensory impairment, bowel and bladder dysfunction and brain abnormalities.2 3
Image of the complete thoracic myelocystocele shortly after birth: the lesion is an entirely skin-covered, cystic, pedunculated mass …
