Prenatal diagnosis of pentalogy of Cantrell in three cases, two with craniorachischisis.

In this report, we describe 3 cases of pentalogy of Cantrell diagnosed prenatally with sonography. All 3 fetuses had an omphalocele and ectopia cordis; 2 of them also had craniorachischisis, in which the open cranial defect (anencephaly or exencephaly) is continuous with the completely open spine (spinal dysraphism). The association of the pentalogy of Cantrell with exencephaly is rare, and to our knowledge, the association of this syndrome with craniorachischisis has not been reported previously. In addition, 2 of our cases had clubfoot, and 1 of them also had clubhand, neither of which has been reported previously in association with the pentalogy of Cantrell. Finally, polyhydramnios, which occurred in 2 of our cases, has been reported to occur in association with that syndrome in only 1 previous case. We believe that sonographers should be aware that these anomalies may occur simultaneously with the classic anomalies of the pentalogy of Cantrell.