Prenatal sonographic diagnosis of congenital hemivertebra.

Abstract

The pren;ital sonogrnphi<.: diagnosis of spinal almormalities associated with neural tuhe element mulformations has heen well described ; however, the diagno. -;is of fotal skeletal anomalies of the vertehral bodies with a neurologically intact spine has received little attention. Three cases of congenital hemivertehra identified sonogruphicnll)' in fotuses between 17 and 28 weeks' gestation are reportecL One of the fotuses also had associated abnormalities involving the heud and extremities. The prenatal diagnosis of congenital hemivertebrn should alert the sonogrnpher to search for other congenital defects and for orthopedic complications of vertebral hody malformations in childhood. Prior knowledge of the presence of an abnormal vertebral body can alel't the pediatrician to watch for early signs of problems such as scoliosis or kyphoscoliosis, and to plun surgery if necessary.

Hemivertebra: Prenatal Diagnosis, Incidence and Characteristics

“…In spite of the frequency of this condition, the English literature contains only few case reports of vertebral malformation that were diagnosed prenatally [3,4,6,8,9,13,14]. We present 3 cases of prenatal diagnosis of hemivertebra, including their ultrasonographic, radiological and gross histopathological findings.…”

“…The ultrasonographic diagnosis of congenital vertebral anomalies associated with open spina bifida has been described extensively. However, congenital abnormalities of the vertebral bodies not associated with neural tube defects, have been less adequately reported in the literature [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. We herewith report the prenatal diagnosis of 3 cases of hemivertebrae, including ultrasonographic, radiological and histopathological characteristics.…”

Second-Trimester Ultrasonographic Diagnosis of Segmental Vertebral Abnormalities Associated With Neurological Deficit: A Possible New Variant of Occult Spinal Dysraphism

“…Spinal bony abnormalities have been diagnosed prenatally (Abrams and Filly, 1985;Benacerraf et al, 1986;Zelop et al, 1993), but were not clinically significant and had no associated spinal cord deformities. However, the presence of spinal deformity carries a poor prognosis (Harrison er al., 1992).…”

Combined diastematomyelia and hemivertebra

“…Diastematomyelias appear as echogenic foci located in the posterior aspect of the spine and are associated with widened interpedicular spaces seen on sonography during the antenatal period. 7,19 This technique has also been used to identify anomalies in the fetal vertebral bodies such as hemivertebrae, [20][21][22] allowing prenatal counselling and early, even prophylactic, surgical management if necessary.…”