Dandy Walker Syndrome: background, symptoms, treatment characteristics and predictions

At the moment, a lot of children born with a pathology are born. One of the most difficult and severe complications is the Dandy Walker syndrome.

The main causes of congenital pathology are as follows:

1. Most experts claim that it is a hereditary disease that is genetically conditioned. This is confirmed by the statistics available in medical science.
2. The anomaly of the Dandy Walker fetus most often occurs in those mothers who suffer from chronic alcoholism. Moreover, there may be no other accompanying genetic abnormalities in the child. In addition to the fact that the body of a woman drinking is not a favorable environment for the development of the fetus, this contingent often refers very irresponsibly to bearing. Therefore, Dandy Walker's syndrome in a child is most often found only after his birth.
3. Hereditary diabetes mellitus, rubella, cytomegalovirus infection in a pregnant woman are also risk factors for the development of this anomaly.

The Dandy Walker syndrome can be identified by the following symptoms .

The first signs can be identified in twenty-two weeks. At the ultrasound study there are already pathognomonic, typical symptoms, which include:

• Presence of a cyst in the area of the cranial fossa (area of a large cistern)
• Aplasia or hypoplasia of the cerebellum worm;
• The fourth ventricle of the brain is enlarged.

At a longer gestation period, these symptoms become apparent and visible:

• "Wolf mouth" ;
• "Hare's lip";
• Congenital malformations of the kidneys;
• Syndactyly - fusion of fingers on the limbs.

The Dandy Walker syndrome begins to manifest quickly after the birth of the child. This is especially true of severe neurologic symptoms, its severity is variable. Very quickly, signs of intracranial hypertension and hydrocephalus appear.

A child with this pathology is very restless, lags behind in development, both in the physical and the psychoneurological. Cerebellar symptoms are also formed - coordination disorders, spastic muscular states and ataxia.

Dandy Walker Syndrome. Treatment and diagnosis

The setting of an antenatal diagnosis - "a fetus with the Dandy Walker syndrome" - poses a very serious dilemma before the father and mother. It is necessary to make a decision - to save the fetus and give birth with a 100% chance of a sick child, or interrupt pregnancy. As a rule, doctors recommend the second option.

Despite this, children with this form of pathology are born constantly. Treatment in this case is very difficult and, as a rule, useless.

But with an incomplete form of pathology and hydrocephalus, surgical intervention is used. Carrying out the shunting of the lateral ventricle and cysts is not capable of eliminating brain damage. The child will grow up as a psychoneurological disabled person with severe physical complications, a number of concomitant diseases and mental inferiority.

The prognosis of the development of children with such an anomaly

The prognosis of the development of children who have Dandy Walker syndrome is very unfavorable. As a rule, brain decompensation gradually increases. In the event that there is a serious form of the disease and there is no full-fledged clinical observation, then such a patient dies in the first six months of life. According to statistics, this is fifty percent.

The rest of the children, even if there is serious work of doctors and parents, will lag far behind in their development, since their intelligence level is very low (without the possibility to restore it in the future). In addition, there is a pronounced functional neurological status.