[Frontal vertebral cleft in the newborn]

In the newborn and foetus in the last months of gestation it is possible to see in lateral radiography of the spine, a longitudinal radiotransparent band which may divide the bone nucleus of the vertebral body into two portions. This front vertebral separation should be considered an expression of a reversible abnormality rather than a malformation to the extent that it almost always concerns a differentiation delay in the vertebral structures. The literature and personal cases show, in fact, that the finding disappears more or less rapidly.