The expectant mother is not without reason so often asked to take tests and undergo various examinations. Experts know that at every stage of pregnancy there are norms of fetal development. Doctors determine the pathology by the size of the head, each month it should be a certain size. Each month should be added 1.5-2 cm.
Craniostenosis has various manifestations
Doctors are familiar with a diagnosis of craniostenosis. It means that the seams of the skull are overgrown prematurely. And this leads to brain damage. In the period when the brain grows most actively, the cranial cavity is not sufficiently expanded. A tower skull in newborns arises for the same reason - this is a manifestation of craniostenosis.
Is it possible to cure such a pathology? Of course, but only with the help of surgical intervention. Prematurely overgrown sutures are excised, or a double flap craniotomy is performed.
One of these pathologies is acrocephaly. In this case, the newborn will have an elongated head shape that resembles a cone. This is also called a tower skull. The cause of the problem is that the intercranial sutures fused very early.
One in a thousand
Statistics show that premature closure of at least one suture is as common as cleft lip, and this is about one out of a thousand children. Depending on how many sutures are overgrown, a characteristic deformation of the head occurs. Unfortunately, at the early stages, the doctor may not notice the pathology and attribute it to the features of the postpartum configuration, not to give the disease due attention.
According to the nature of the deformity, patients are divided into several categories. Acrocephaly or tower skull occurs in 12.8% of cases. The disease is clearly manifested from 5 months to 13 years. For 28 boys with this problem, there are 19 girls.
The development of children with an abnormal shape of the skull
If the child has an abnormal development of the skull, it is always a pathology. The development of the psyche and motor skills in such children is delayed. Such deformations do not disappear spontaneously, some of them may become less noticeable, sometimes they can be hidden under the hair. Sometimes a problem is mistakenly diagnosed with a different diagnosis. The problem may go by the wayside if there are more serious disruptions in the functioning of systems and organs.
Most often, children with craniosynostosis are advised by geneticists, they can not only establish a group of diseases, but also determine the genetic syndrome. At the same time, children practically do not get into specialized institutions and do not receive proper treatment. And without it, children subsequently have reduced intelligence. With a tower skull, similar problems also arise, the shape of the face is disturbed due to the irregular shape of the skull.
The situation is solvable
Doctors, seeing a pathology, will always point it out to their parents and suggest possible solutions. But due to various circumstances, the specialist may not notice the problem immediately. Since parents see their baby much more often, they are most often the first to notice that the child has problems. Similar issues are resolved surgically. This is how the tower skull can be fixed. And the sooner the operation is done, the greater the chance of a full recovery. Operations can be performed from 6 months of age.
In newborns, the bones of the cranial vault are initially separated by sutures, these sutures expand at the intersection - these are fontanelles, anterior and posterior. The back opening closes within three months, and the front overgrows within two years. If the child has an unusual skull shape, this is usually a sign that the cranial sutures are overgrown early, with a quick fusion of several sutures, the child has a tower skull. Photos of this pathology are presented in the article.
Treatment of congenital problems is widely practiced abroad. Deformations of the skull are treated according to special techniques surgically. The operation eliminates brain compression. It is allowed to carry out the operation from the age of three months.