Diastematomyelia

Diastematomyelia
Classification and external resources
Specialty	medical genetics
ICD-10	Q06.2
ICD-9-CM	742.51
OMIM	222500
DiseasesDB	33901
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Diastematomyelia (occasionally diastomyelia) is a congenital disorder in which a part of the spinal cord is split, usually at the level of the upper lumbar vertebra.

Diastematomyelia is a rare congenital anomaly that results in the "splitting" of the spinal cord in a longitudinal (sagittal) direction. Females are affected much more commonly than males. This condition occurs in the presence of an osseous (bone), cartilaginous or fibrous septum in the central portion of the spinal canal which then produces a complete or incomplete sagittal division of the spinal cord into two hemicords. When the split does not reunite distally to the spur, the condition is referred to as a diplomyelia, or true duplication of the spinal cord.

Diastematomyelia is a "dysraphic state" of unknown embryonic origin, but is probably initiated by an accessory neurenteric canal (an additional embryonic spinal canal.) This condition may be an isolated phenomenon or may be associated with other segmental anomalies of the vertebral bodies such as spina bifida, kyphoscoliosis, butterfly vertebra, hemivertebra and block vertebrae which are observed in most of the cases. Scoliosis is identified in more than half of these patients. In most of the symptomatic patients, the spinal cord is split into halves by a bony spicule or fibrous band, each half being surrounded by a dural sac. Other conditions, such as intramedullary tumors, tethered cord, dermoids, lipoma, syringomyelia, hydromyelia and Arnold-Chiari malformations have been described in medical literature, but they are exceptionally rare.

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