CLOSED MIDLINE SPINAL DEVELOPMENTAL DEFECTS

This retrospective review included 133 patients with one or several of the following defects : diastematomyelia, neurenteric cyst, dermal si nus or cyst, meningea malformation, sacral agenesis, tethering of the spinal cord, and lumbosacral lipoma. Physical evaluation readily ident ified most lumbosacral lipomas, as well as most cases of diastematomye lia since hypertrichosis over the defect was common. Some patients dev eloped life-threatening clinical manifestations, e.g., meningitis due to a dermal sinus. On the basis of this retrospective review and a rev iew of the literature, the clinical and therapeutic aspects of each de fect are discussed.