Lumbo-sacral malformations and spina bifida occulta in medieval skeletons from Brittany

Abstract

Compared with the other French regions, the incidence of neural tube defects is raised in Brittany. It can be explained by the Celtic origin of the Britton people, who migrated from Great Britain in the High Middle Ages. Notwithstanding, there are no historical or archeological evidences of the occurrence of these pathological conditions in medieval Brittany. We investigated the incidence of lumbo-sacral malformations on the skeletal remains of 30 individuals excavated from the necropolis of Saint-Urnel (southwest Brittany). We found out several anatomical variations among five specimens, three of which had spinal dysraphism involving the sacrum. Our results enrich the very few paleopathological data about spinal dysraphism, from the Hippocratic Corpus to the first description of Spina Bifida in sixteenth century. But, their interpretation remains delicate until the same genetic factors are shown in the etiology of both open and closed spinal dysraphism.