[The prognosis of encephaloceles (author's transl)]

Encephaloceles were diagnosed in 39 patients over a 40-year interval from 1940. Thirty-three encephaloceles were located in the occipital region, 3 in parietal, 1 in glabellar, 1 in sphenomaxillar and 1 in intracranial. Nineteen patients were males and 20 were females. Eleven of 39 patients were dead. In 33 patients the encephalocele was excised and two died within a month after operation. Four patients expired within a year and other four died before the age of 4 years. Eleven of dead cases were meningoencephaloceles or meningoencephalocystoceles except one. In 6 of them the size of encephalocele was larger than 5 cm in diameter. Twenty-six patients survived 6 months fo 34 years. Six of them found to be severely retarded psychosomatically. Twenty others spend normal lives. Eldest patient whose occipital meningoencephalocele sized 4.5 cm in diameter was excised in 1945 works in a automobile dealer's shop as a car operator after graduation of a junior high school. He has two children, as well. Two patients are graduates of a high school, one a college and one a junior high school. Other patients of school age attend ordinary classes of each school with or without minimal handicaps such as paresis of one leg, unilateral visual loss, slight cerebellar ataxia, large head size and so on. Two of these 20 patients who are found to be in good state had encephaloceles larger than 5 cm in diameter, but other 18 smaller than 5 cm. Eleven of them were meningoceles. Four of 6 patients who had anterior or parietal encephalocele were found to have no neurological sequelae. Significant adverse prognostic factors were the presence of brain tissue within the sac of lesion and the size of it. However, hydrocephalus did not effect the quality of survival of our patients.