Histopathological Analysis of the Sac Membrane in Meningomyeloceles

Abstract

　In the treatment of meningomyeloceles, plastic surgery is often requested to cover the skin and soft tissue defect after myeloplasty or meningomyeloceles recurrence by neurosurgery. When the extent of the defect is small, primary closure is usually possible; however, when the defect is extensive, reconstruction by skin grafts, musculocutaneous flap, or local skin flap is necessary, and several reconstruction methods have been reported. In this study, we performed a histopathological analysis of the sac membrane in meningomyeloceles, which are usually discarded, in four cases of meningomyeloceles at our department, and examined the possibility of using it as a skin graft for the donor site defect. Based on histopathological analysis, all sac membranes had normal skin structure, whereas the aneurysmal structures contained glial structures, suggesting that they should be closely monitored if used as skin grafts. In addition, there have been reports of good results using sac membranes as skin grafts, thus sac membranes may be useful for temporary wound closure.