On October 11, 1983, “Baby Jane Doe” was born in Port Jefferson, NY, and diagnosed with hydrocephalus and myelomeningocele, the most common and serious form of spina bifida. Doctors advised her parents that she would die without surgery. With surgery, she would live from 2 to 20 years, paralyzed, bedridden, incontinent, and severely “retarded.” Based on this information, the parents declined tr...

Renal malakoplakia is reported in an 11 year old girl with myelomeningocele and associated neuropathic bladder. She is the first reported child to have survived bilateral renal malakoplakia with full recovery of renal function after medical management.

Neurodevelopmental disorders such as spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) are often associated with dysrhythmic movement. We studied rhythm discrimination in 21 children with SBM and in 21 age-matched controls, with the research question being whether both groups showed a strong-meter advantage whereby rhythm discrimination is better for rhythms with a strong-meter, in which onsets of longer int...

Holter's invention of the non-retum valve and its use in ventriculo-caval drainage operations has been a revolutionary step in the treatment of hydrocephalus. The valves effectively control intracranial pressure and prevent the back flow of blood from the vascular system. This technique has been in use in this country since January 1958. In our unit 48 such operations were carried out during 19...

Congenital anomalies such as meningomyelocele and diseases/damage of the central, peripheral, or autonomic nervous systems may produce neurogenic bladder dysfunction, which untreated can result in progressive renal damage, adverse physical effects including decubiti and urinary tract infections, and psychological and social sequelae related to urinary incontinence. A comprehensive bladder-retra...

The decision which prospective parents face concerning mid-trimester amniocentesis for prenatal diagnosis was examined by decision analysis. The prospective parents' decision depends on the likelihood of the birth of a child affected by a genetic disorder, the risk of amniocentesis, and the probability that the diagnoses provided by the amniocentesis will be correct. The couple's decision must ...

Spina bifida meningomyelocele with hydrocephalus (SBM) is commonly associated with anomalies of the corpus callosum (CC). We describe MRI patterns of regional CC agenesis and relate CC anomalies to functional laterality based on a dichotic listening test in 90 children with SBM and 27 typically developing controls. Many children with SBM (n = 40) showed regional CC anomalies in the form of agen...