CONGENITAL DERMAL SINUS ASSOCIATED WITH AN ABSCESSED INTRAMEDULLARY EPIDERMOID CYST IN A CHILD - CASE-REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A 16-month-old male infant presented with paraparesis and a high thora cic skin dimple. After myelography the child underwent complete surgic al removal of the dermal sinus and of an abscessed tumor located withi n the cervicothoracic cord. Histological study showed that the lesion was an intramedullary epidermoid cyst. Only four descriptions have pre viously been published of dermal sinuses associated with intramedullar y epidermoids, three of them complicated by intramedullary abscesses. This appears to be the first report in the current literature of the a ssociation of a dermal sinus and an infected intramedullary epidermoid occurring out of the confines of the lumbosacral region.