Enormous Myelomeningocele of a Newborn: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

The myelomeningocele, is a serious pathology with heavy consequences putting at stake the vital prognosis of the child, it is a congenital malformation resulting from a defect of closure of the neural tube. We report the case of a 25 days old newborn, in whom the antenatal diagnosis of myelomeningocele was confirmed by morphological ultrasound. The particularity of our case is the very low age of intervention as the enormous size of the myelomeningocele. Many congenital malformations of the central nervous system can be associated with this pathology going from the malformation of Arnold Chiari to the heterotopia, the discovery of this malformation imposes a complete malformative assessment, and a medical-surgical management. The main postoperative risk is the sepsis which is all the more serious and mortal that the age is young of the child at the time of the intervention.