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Journal of Pediatric Neurology 2004; 02(02): 107-110
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1557202
Case Report
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart – New York

Midline intracranial cysts in identical twin brothers

R. Shane Tubbs
1   Department of Cell Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A.
,
W. Jerry Oakes
2   Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A.
,
John C. Wellons
2   Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A.
› Author Affiliations
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Publication History

05 November 2003

19 November 2003

Publication Date:
29 July 2015 (online)

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Abstract

Midline cysts of the anterior brain are common in infants e.g. cavum septum pellucidum et vergae. We report twin brothers with midline intracranial cysts, mildly increased ventricular size, and macrocephaly. One brother had a cavum septum pellucidum and vergae and the other a cavum septum pellucidum. With the obliteration of each brother's midline cyst the head circumference was noted to return to a normal head circumference curve and the ventricles decreased in size. We hypothesize that in infancy some cases of infantile macrocephaly are induced by a midline cyst and that as the cyst obliterates that physiologic cerebrospinal fluid pathways are established so that the head circumference returns within normal parameters. This knowledge should be kept in mind by the clinician who may wish to surgically intervene with a midline cyst prior to it demonstrating its natural history. Moreover, these data should especially be entertained in the premature infant. (J Pediatr Neurol 2004; 2(2): 107–110).

Keywords

siblings - midline cysts - brain - cerebrospinal fluid - hydrocephalus