The Relationship Between Prenatal Porencephaly and the Encephalomalacias of Early Life

Abstract

In the course of time the term “porencephaly” has come to mean a condition characterized by any large circumscribed defect in the substance of the brain. Because of the unmyelinated state of the centrum semiovale in early life traumatic, vascular, anoxic or infective processes are likely to lead to a much more massive resorption of the tissues than occurs in the adult. Parts of the wall of the hemisphere may be converted into a semi-translucent membrane separating the lateral ventricle from the sub-arachnoid space. This thin sheet of neuroglial tissue usually represents the residual stretched out molecular layer of the cortex, and is a finding common to many varieties of infantile and foetal encephalomalacia (Wolf and Cowan, 1956).