Ventriculomegaly diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound and mental development of the children.

During the last 8 years in our department, fetal ventriculomegaly was diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound in 105 cases. Ventriculomegaly was detected at 25+/-6 weeks of gestation. In 96 of 105 cases follow-up examinations have been performed both during pregnancy and after delivery. In 47 cases termination of pregnancy, late spontaneous abortion or intrauterine death occurred. 49 cases resulted in live births. Of these, 28 children could be followed up to the age of 36 months, a few children even longer. Myelomeningocele was the most frequent cause of ventriculomegaly (17 cases = 61%). Insertion of ventricular shunt systems was performed in 26 children at a median of 21 days of life. Analysis of postnatal development was performed by the Kaufmann Assessment Battery for Children, or the Munich Functional Development Test. Correlation analysis was performed between parameters of prenatal findings and postnatal development. It could be shown that results of single prenatal ultrasound examinations did not correlate with postnatal development whereas progression of ventriculomegaly was negatively correlated with mental development.