Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 16, 2025
Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
Published on: December 18, 2016
Symmetrical Thalamic Lesions in Preterm Triplets: What Can We Learn From the Different Phenotypes?
Cristina Mastropietro1, Carole Gengler2, Camille Kumps3
1Department Women-Mother-Child, Clinic of Neonatology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Background:
Symmetrical thalamic lesions (STL) is a rare condition that affects term newborns who have suffered an antenatal hypoxic insult and present at birth with specific clinical features: feeding and swallowing difficulties, facial hypomimia, apnea, and frequently hypertonia. Recently STL have also been described in preterm infants.
Case Details:
We describe the first case series of STL in preterm triplets with a variable spectrum of clinical outcomes, following a clearly identified perinatal anoxic insult. Spontaneous male triplets, two monochorionic-diamniotic (T1 and T2) and one dichorionic-diamniotic (T3), were born at 31 1/7 gestational weeks by emergency Caesarean section due to maternal anaphylactic shock and presented with severe neonatal asphyxia.
Conclusions:
The clinical presentation, neuroimaging studies, and autoptic findings of the two monochorionic twins are compatible with STL with a more severe neurological presentation of T1. The dichorionic triplet was completely unaffected. Genetic and metabolic studies excluded alternative etiologies.
