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Fetal cephaloceles: prenatal diagnosis and course of pregnancy in 65 consecutive cases

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To scrutinize the characteristics of all cases with antenatally established diagnosis of cephalocele in two tertiary referral centers.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 65 cases diagnosed with cephaloceles and tabulated sonographic findings and autopsy recordings as well as medical charts of all survivors in terms of clinical outcome.

Results

The case notes of 65 fetuses were available for final analysis. Gestational age (GA) at diagnosis ranged from 10.4 to 38.1 weeks. Of our cohort, 53/65 cases (80%) had occipital protrusions, 10 (15%) were found to have frontal lesions, and another two had parietal cephaloceles. A total of 52 pregnancies were terminated or resulted in intrauterine fetal demise (78%). In 18 cases (11%), the cephalocele was part of underlying syndromic disorders (e.g., Meckel–Gruber syndrome). Thirteen pregnancies were continued until term, out of which all affected individuals were live-born. Neurosurgical intervention was prompted within the first 7 months postnatally.

Conclusions

In general, the outcome of fetuses with cephaloceles is rather poor as four out of five pregnancies were terminated. Postnatal outcome of all survivors in our cohort was rather determined by localization of the cele and more important by the presence and severity of concomitant malformations than the extent of the lesion.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Jan Weichert and Friederike Hoellen contributed equally to the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Prenatal Medicine, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital of Schleswig–Holstein, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538, Luebeck, Germany

    Jan Weichert & Friederike Hoellen

  2. Prenatal Medicine, Amedes Fertility Centre Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Krapp

  3. Caritas Hospital St. Josef, Regensburg, Germany

    Ute Germer

  4. Division of Prenatal Medicine, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Roland Axt-Fliedner

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Andrea Kempe, Annegret Geipel, Christoph Berg & Ulrich Gembruch

Authors
  1. Jan Weichert
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  2. Friederike Hoellen
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  3. Martin Krapp
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  4. Ute Germer
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  5. Roland Axt-Fliedner
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  6. Andrea Kempe
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  7. Annegret Geipel
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  8. Christoph Berg
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  9. Ulrich Gembruch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Weichert.

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Funding

This study was not funded.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. It is a retrospective archive study. The institutional review boards of both the universities of Bonn and Lübeck do not require formal approval for retrospective archive studies; therefore, an ethical approval was not sought.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants enrolled in this study.

Author contributions

UG, JW: Protocol/project development. UG, MK, UG, RAF, AK, AG, ChB, JW: Data collection or management. JW, FH, UG: Data analysis. JW, FH, UG: Manuscript writing/editing.

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Weichert, J., Hoellen, F., Krapp, M. et al. Fetal cephaloceles: prenatal diagnosis and course of pregnancy in 65 consecutive cases. Arch Gynecol Obstet 296, 455–463 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-017-4424-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-017-4424-7

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