MICROCEPHALIA VERA

Abstract

Microcephalia vera, as pathologic entity, has become better understood during the past few decades owing to the cooperation of the clinicians, the embryologists and the pathologists. The clinicians have added to the literature on the subject many instructive case reports which have thrown enlightenment on the physical aspects, anthropometric measurements, neurologic and psychiatric deviations, etc., all of which have increased knowledge of the results of defective development of the brain during intra-uterine life. From the pathologic studies of the condition one can determine the relationship between the pathologic picture disclosed in the central nervous system and comparable embryologic facts relating to teratologic formations during the embryonic development of the cerebral hemispheres. Furthermore, one wishes to inquire into the process of formation of the so-called heterotopias and the anomalies of the cerebral cortex during its earliest elaboration. HISTORICAL REVIEW AND THEORIES OF MICROCEPHALY Microcephaly is defined as a condition or