Spondylocostal dysostosis and urinary tract anomaly: definition and review of an entity

A two-year-old girl with spondylocostal dysostosis and urinary tract anomalies is described. Genetic counselling to the healthy non-consanguineous parents is based on the hypothesis of autosomal recessive inheritance. At birth this type of spondylocostal dysostosis can be differentiated radiographically from related conditions by the severe and generalized anomaly of the entire vertebral column, and by the typical configuration of the posteriorly-fused ribs. Only the cardinal clinical features of a short trunk and a short, immobile neck are consistently present in all patients. In one group of patients the severe thoracic malformation and lordosis contribute to cardiopulmonary problems with a fatal outcome in early infancy. The roentgenographic changes are less marked in other patients, whose subsequent clinical course is usually without major problems but remains at present insufficiently known.