Cranioschisis (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: κρανιον ''kranion'', "skull", and σχίσις ''schisis'', "split"), or dysraphism, is a

neural tube defect Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a group of birth defects in which an opening in the spine or cranium remains from early in human development. In the third week of pregnancy called gastrulation, specialized cells on the dorsal side of the embryo ...

involving the skull. In this defect, the cranium fails to close completely (especially at the occipital region). Thus, the brain is exposed to the

amnios ''Amnios'' is a video game for the Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse ...

and eventually degenerates, causing

anencephaly Anencephaly is the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp that occurs during embryonic development. It is a cephalic disorder that results from a neural tube defect that occurs when the rostral (head) end of the neural tube fa ...

. Craniorachischisis is on the extreme end of the dysraphism spectrum, wherein the entire length of the

neural tube In the developing chordate (including vertebrates), the neural tube is the embryonic precursor to the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. The neural groove gradually deepens as the neural fold become elevated, ...

fails to close.

References

{{Congenital malformations and deformations of musculoskeletal system Congenital disorders of nervous system Congenital disorders of musculoskeletal system

See also

References