Upasani VV, Ketwaroo PD, Estroff JA, Warf BC, Emans JB, Glotzbecker MP. Prenatal diagnosis and assessment of congenital spinal anomalies: Review for prenatal counseling. World J Orthop 2016; 7(7): 406-417 [PMID: 27458551 DOI: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i7.406]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Vidyadhar V Upasani, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, 3030 Children’s Way, Suite 410, San Diego, CA 92123, United States. vupasani@rchsd.org
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Orthop. Jul 18, 2016; 7(7): 406-417 Published online Jul 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i7.406
Prenatal diagnosis and assessment of congenital spinal anomalies: Review for prenatal counseling
Vidyadhar V Upasani, Pamela Deaver Ketwaroo, Judy A Estroff, Benjamin C Warf, John B Emans, Michael P Glotzbecker
Vidyadhar V Upasani, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, San Diego, CA 92123, United States
Pamela Deaver Ketwaroo, Department of Radiology, Brighman and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Judy A Estroff, Department of Radiology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Benjamin C Warf, Department of Neurosurgery, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, United States
John B Emans, Michael P Glotzbecker, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Author contributions: Upasani VV, Ketwaroo PD and Glotzbecker MP contributed to patient chart review, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing; Estroff JA, Warf BC and Emans JB contributed to manuscript preparation, manuscript editing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors on this manuscript have any direct or indirect conflicts of interest or financial disclosures related to the contents of this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Vidyadhar V Upasani, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, 3030 Children’s Way, Suite 410, San Diego, CA 92123, United States. vupasani@rchsd.org
Telephone: +1-858-9666789 Fax: +1-858-9668519
Received: February 3, 2016 Peer-review started: February 14, 2016 First decision: March 21, 2016 Revised: May 3, 2016 Accepted: May 31, 2016 Article in press: June 2, 2016 Published online: July 18, 2016 Processing time: 158 Days and 13.5 Hours
Abstract
The last two decades have seen continuous advances in prenatal ultrasonography and in utero magnetic resonance imaging. These technologies have increasingly enabled the identification of various spinal pathologies during early stages of gestation. The purpose of this paper is to review the range of fetal spine anomalies and their management, with the goal of improving the clinician’s ability to counsel expectant parents prenatally.
Core tip: Advances in prenatal ultrasonography and in utero magnetic resonance imaging have given clinicians powerful tools to identify spinal pathologies during early stages of gestation. Prenatal counseling requires a “team” of appropriate specialists requiring coordination and cross-communication from multiple surgical and medical disciplines. The orthopedic clinician should critically assess the accuracy of the diagnosis, the likely natural history of the deformity, what treatments may be required, and what the impact of the anomaly will be on the child’s growth and eventual adult function.
