Terminology questions

[Scott-V.]

We are having a little trouble understanding some things while talking with the German Doctors. Could someone please help me understand what Arnold-Chiari deformity, banana sign, and lemon sign are?

Thank you

[janjanwhit]

Arnold charai basically means that the bottem of the brain is in a lower position then 'normal' as it is being pulled down by the spine. My specialist said that a massive percentage of sb patients have this and only a few have any symptoms. They basically told me not to worry as this is considered normal with a sb patient.
Lemon sign is the shape of the babies head. Its basically shaped more like a lemon then an oval and has small indentations. This is caused by the spine pulling down. For some reason the defect in the spine causes it to be pulled down. You cant actually see the lemon shape when they baby is born though. They use this to diagnose sb. I think it is most obvious at about the 20 week scan. My baby has the lemon sign and they say he wont have a head shaped like a lemon when he is born. The lemon sign is seen in 98% of sb cases.
The banana sign means that part of the babys brain is banana shaped due to the spine pulling down and thats also 'normal' with a sb baby.
Basically all the things you have asked about are classic markers of sb. They are things that doctors look for when they are trying to diagnose sb. I wouldnt worry too much about those particular traits as all they basically confirm is that baby has sb. They dont really tell you about his prognosis. My baby has all those traits and it helped my doctors confirm that he does has sb.

[Dodger67]

I didn't know we have fruit salad in our heads!:sign0020:

[janjanwhit]

You'd think they could come up with better names! When they first started talking about my babies head being shaped like a lemon i was freaked. Imagining a baby thats head looked like a lemon! i thought that must mean he was terribly disfigured. I have seen it on the scan and its not actually that easy to see, and they have assured me that babies dont come out actually looking like lemons lol.

[lrllnd1]

Hi, My baby also has the lemon shaped skull when she was first diagnosed in November. It is not as lemon shaped as it was then, that was one of the signs that she has SB. She also has the Chiari Malformation which they can see from the ultrasounds. I had been told the Chiari malformation involves the lower brain steam and upper spinal cord and the brain stem in displaced into the neck. 85 to 90 % of SB babies has this malformation there are three different types. Type II is the most common type in people with SB it can cause feeding and breathing problems sometimes.

I would really recommend getting the book Children with Spina Bifida by Marlene Lutkenhoff and Living with Spina Bifida by Adrian Sandler, I have gotten both these books off Ebay and they have been very helpful.

Hope this helps.

[Summer25]

Chiari is when the bottom of the brain gets pushed down into the brain stem and can cause symptoms like headaches, neck pain, eye problems, swallowing problems, and breathing problems. They do a decompression surgery for it which is taking out a little part of the skull I believe. I started having issues at the age of 16. I was told I could do surgery, or wait. I decided to wait and see if PT would work. I am now 25 and pretty much symptom free without surgery.