Midrio Paola, Silberstein Howard J, Bilaniuk Larissa T, Adzick N Scott, Sutton Leslie N
Department of Surgery, The Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4399, USA.
Neurosurgery. 2002 May;50(5):1152-4; discussion 1154-5. doi: 10.1097/00006123-200205000-00040.
We report a case of a child with terminal myelocystocele (TMC). This case exemplifies the importance of performing a multidisciplinary evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging in the patient with suspected meningomyelocele when fetal surgery is being considered.
This patient was evaluated at the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment and considered for fetal surgery to repair meningomyelocele.
A follow-up based on both ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging was performed throughout pregnancy.
Although a definitive diagnosis of TMC was not established prenatally, the patient was not offered fetal surgery, based on multiple selection criteria. We correlate the pathophysiology of TMC with the radiographic and amniocentesis findings. TMC must be considered in the differential diagnosis in a fetus with a dysraphic defect.
