Growing Skull Defect in an Infant with a Rare Combination of a Foramen Parietale Permagna and an Atretic Cephalocele

Abstract

Here we present a case of a 2-month-old child with an atretic encephalocele and large persistent parietal foramina. The course was unusual in that the parietal foramina significantly increased in size over a relatively short time. At the age of three months the child required surgery because of the increasing skull defect. During surgery the cause of the growing skull defect was revealed as a medial atretic encephalocele with enlarged parietal foramina. Large parietal foramina are a rare clinical entity with a prevalence ranging from 1:15.000 to 1:25.000. The skull defect is usually identified on physical examination and confirmed radio graphically. We assume that the mechanism underlying the growing bone defect is identical to that of a growing skull fracture. To our knowledge this is the only reported case of an infant with a growing skull defect requiring surgery due to an atretic encephalocele protruding through a growing parietal foramina.