DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2021.v09i10.006

Pages: 947-949

Spontaneous pneumocephalus is one of the complications of open myelomeningocele with or without clinical signs, reported very rarely in the literature. Pneumocephalus It can associated with several neurosurgical procedures, lumbar puncture, or cranial trauma; But very rarely, the open neural tube defects may lead to spontaneous pneumocephalus. The radiographic appearance of intraspinal air on CT was not described previously. The following report presents a case of spontaneous appearance of internal pneumocephalus in a newborn infant with open myelomeningocele which environmental air could gain access to the cerebrum associated with bi-ventricular hydrocephalus and an Arnold-Chiari type II malformation, revealed on CT images. Spontaneous pneumocephalus should be kept in mind as a rare complication of open meningomyelocele. Any patient with open meningomyelocele should be early evaluated for pneumocephalus with a cranial imaging.