Congenital spinal cord anomalies: a pictorial review.

Development of spinal canal and its contents occurs in a much regulated fashion. Aberration at any stage of development namely gastrulation, primary neurulation, secondary neurulation, and retrogressive differentiation can result in a specific abnormality. Spinal cord anomalies or spinal dysraphism is a heterogeneous group containing some entities that are obvious at birth and many that are discovered only after imaging for neurological symptoms or signs. Congenital spinal tumors are closely related and present either as an external mass or imaging abnormalities. Radiological imaging plays a crucial role in both diagnosis and postoperative evaluation of these patients. Magnetic resonance imaging is the modality of choice. Computed tomography is used in a limited fashion. Plain radiographs are the initial imaging in patients presenting with abnormal curvatures of spine. No other central nervous system abnormality requires as systematic an approach as spinal dysraphism. The authors present a review of both common and rare anomalies that they encountered for a 3-year period in their institute, a tertiary care level hospital.