PRENATAL-DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF FETAL HYDROCEPHALY AND LISSENCEPHALY

Two cases of prenatal diagnosis of lissencephaly are presented in the context of a series of 118 cases of prenatally diagnosed hydrocephalus . Within this series there was one case of Walker-Warburg syndrome and another of Miller-Dieker syndrome. It is stressed that the cases repo rted here of ventriculomegaly diagnosed in utero show a very different outcome from those in published studies of fetal hydrocephalus which only deal with patients in whom the diagnosis was determined after bir th. In those postnatal series there is a considerable selection bias, and the fate of the fetuses reported here was much worse than in postn atal series. Of the 118 fetuses 6 had fetal infections, 6 had chromoso mal abnormalities, 26 had associated spina bifida, 64 fetuses had asso ciated other anomalies, and only 28 had isolated hydrocephalus. Althou gh it is difficult to determine the prognosis individually after prena tal diagnosis of ventriculomegaly, the data presented here may be help ful in counseling parents prenatally. The counseling should be perform ed with the collaboration of obstetricians, pediatricians, surgeons, a nd geneticists.