Microcephaly

Microcephaly is a developmental defect, which is based on a decrease in the mass of the brain. Microcephaly is said to decrease the circumference of the skull by 2 or more sigma deviations.

Etiology. There are two types of microcephaly: primary (simple, genetic), which is the result of the influence of the harmful factor in the early stages of intrauterine development, and secondary (combined, complicated), developing as a result of brain damage in the last months of intrauterine development, during childbirth and in the first months of life .

Clinical picture. The circumference of the skull is reduced. Rodnichki and sutures close in the first months after birth. As the growth of the facial skull increasingly prevails over the brain. The vast majority of patients have varying degrees of intellectual insufficiency. With primary microcephaly, the motor sphere is relatively preserved, neurological symptoms are poorly expressed. In secondary microcephaly there are, as a rule, significant motor damage, more often as a type of infantile cerebral palsy (see), convulsions, and intellect suffer most severely.

Diagnosis. Based on clinical manifestations is simple.

Forecast. In primary microcephaly, it is possible in some cases to study in a secondary school. Children with secondary microcephaly need constant care.

Treatment. See Children's Cerebral Palsy, Oligophrenia.