| Received | : | Apr 23, 2019 |
| Accepted | : | Jun 10, 2019 |
| Published Online | : | Jun 12, 2019 |
| Journal | : | Journal of Clinical Images |
| Publisher | : | MedDocs Publishers LLC |
| Online edition | : | http://meddocsonline.org |
Cite this article: Reñé NV, Domingo Ruiz A, Paredes Carmona F, Garcia Marti J, Sole Mir E. A newborn with a tail. J Clin Images. 2019; 2(1): 1008.
A female in fant was born as the fourthchild of non consanguinous parents. The neonate had been born by vaginal delivery with poorly controlled pregnancy. The mother started taking folicacid and iodine the last month of gestation. Antenatal ultrasound didn’t show abnormalities. There was no history of congenital anomalies in any of the family members.
Figure 1: Image of the tail at the birth and 8 months later.
Figure 2: MRI showing evidence of spinal dysraphism with extension of th eappendage into the spinal canal.
On the fir stexamination, the neonate was observed to have a 4 cm long shaped tissue appendage, fleshy, arising and hanging down from th emid-sacral region, completely covered by skin and had no spontaneous movement (Figure 1). The neonate had active movement in both lower limbs, plantar reflex and osteotendinousre flexes were billateral and simetrically and anal muscle to newas normal. The examination did not reveal other anomalies.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the spine showed evidence of spinal dysraphism with extension of the appendage into the spinal canal and spinal cord tethering, ending at the L3 associated with a lipoma of the filumterminale (Figure 2). Surgical removal had been recommended and is still pending.
The presence of cut an eous midline congenit all esions in the lumbosacralre gionmay indicate the presence of occultspinaldy sraphism. Human tails may be associated with other developmental and non-developmental conditions like spinal dysraphisms, spinabid if a, tethered cord, coccygeal vertabrae, syndactly, and lipomas. The human tailis a rare congenital anomaly resulting in skin-covered protrusions in the lumbosacral and coccygeal region. A true human tailis a distal skin-covered boneless midline protrusion, composed of a core of striated muscle, adipose and connective tissue and containing blood vessels, nerve fibres, ganglion cells with out any connection to the spinal canal. Pseudo-tails are caused by various diseases thatpre sent with lumbosacral coccygeal protrusion and only bear superficial similarity to true tails.
The distinction between the two entities it’s important and it concerns about the prognosis and the best managements trategies.
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