The Most Common Comorbidities in Dandy-Walker Syndrome Patients: A Systematic Review of Case Reports

Dandy-Walker syndrome (DWS) is a rare neurologic multi-entity malformation. This review aimed at reporting its main nonneurologic comorbidities.

Following PRISMA guidelines, search in Medline was conducted (2000-2014, keyword: dandy-walker). Age, sex, country, DWS type, consanguinity or siblings with DWS, and recorded coexistent conditions (by ICD10 category) were extracted for 187 patients (46.5% male, 43% from Asia) from 168 case reports.

Diagnosis was most often set in <1 year old (40.6%) or >12 years old (27.8%). One-third of cases had a chromosomal abnormality or syndrome (n = 8 PHACE), 27% had a cardiovascular condition (n = 7 Patent Ductus Arteriosus), 24% had a disease of eye and ear (n = 9 cataract); most common malignancy was nephroblastoma (n = 8, all Asian). Almost one-fifth had a mental illness diagnosis; only 6.4% had mild or severe intellectual disability.

The spread of comorbidities calls for early diagnosis and multidisciplinary research and practice, especially as many cases remain clinically asymptomatic for years.