A ten‐year review of encephalocele in a teaching hospital

Abstract

A 10-year review of infants with encephalocele was carried out in a multicentered teaching hospital. Out of 23,438 infants seen within the period, only 12 cases of encephalocele were seen, giving an incidence of 0.5/1000 births. Nine (75%) of patients had occipital encephalocele, two (16.7%) occipitoparietal and one (8.3%) fronto-nasal. Two patients had spina bifida as an associated neural tube defect while ocular abnormalities were seen in another two. None had neurological defects at birth but some showed evidence of hydrocephalus and delayed milestones after surgery. Ultrasonic diagnosis was made in one case only. The etiologic, prognostic and descriptive characteristics, in addition to obstetric management of encephalocele are discussed.

Neural Tube Defects: The Experience of the Registry of Congenital Malformations of Alsace, France, 1995-2009

“…Considering each NTD type, our 99% sensitivity of prenatal diagnosis of anencephaly was in the upper range compared to the 87-100% results in the literature [49,50]. The sensitivity of prenatal detection of cephalocele was 74% in our series, which was difficult to compare with the literature due to the large variability with rates ranging from 8 in Nigeria to 92% in California and 100% in Spain [19,42,51]. Focusing on spina bifida, our results were also in the upper range (81%) compared to reported prenatal detection rates ranging from 38 to 84% [11,19].…”

Evolution of prenatal detection of neural tube defects in the pregnant population of the city of Barcelona from 1992 to 2006

“…Series on prenatal detection of encephalocele are rare and extremely variable, ranging from 8% in Nigeria to 92% in California Adetiloye et al . (); Budorick et al , ).…”

“…Reported detection rates (DR) for NTD range from 79% to 100% in hospitals (Romero et al , ; Jorgensen et al , ; Dashe et al , ) and from 62% to 86% in the general population (Winsor and Brown, ; Forrester and Merz, ; Stoll et al , ; Norem et al , ; Van Allen et al , ). Regarding specific NTD types, anencephaly invariably shows higher DR (Winsor and Brown, ; Lys et al , ; Smithells et al , ; Chan et al , ; Forrester et al , ; De Wals et al , ; Boyd et al , ; Rankin et al , , EUROCAT website database), while spina bifida (Winsor and Brown, : Smithells et al , ; Chan et al , ; Olde Scholtenhuis et al , ) and encephalocele (Winsor and Brown, ; Adetiloye et al , ; Budorick et al , ; Forrester et al , ) show a wider variation. Gestational age greatly influences the type of NTD that can be detected.…”

Encephalocele in Uganda: ethnic distinctions in lesion location, endoscopic management of hydrocephalus, and survival in 110 consecutive children

“…Several more recent studies from the western African countries of Nigeria and Senegal have reported only 8%-12% of lesions as being sincipital, with the great majority being occipital. 1,2,6,14 The 30% sincipital location in our East African population of Uganda is 3 times greater.…”

“…1,2,6,14 To date, there have been no clinical series of EC reported from an East or Central African country. We present the largest surgical series of ECs to be reported from the African continent, and the first from East Africa.…”