Visceral Cleft

The Visceral Cleft is a temporary notch or gap between the gill arches that forms during embryonic development. The branchial arches are the structures from which the various organs of the head and neck will subsequently develop.

During embryonic development, 4 pairs of gill arches are formed. Between adjacent gill arches, slits are formed - gill slits. As the embryo develops, most of the gill slits are temporarily closed by tissue. However, the first gill slit remains open and forms the tympanic cavity and the auditory tube.

Thus, the gill cleft is an important embryonic structure that plays a key role in the formation of the organs of the head and neck of the fetus. Other names for this structure are rudimentary gill cleft, visceral cleft.

Gill nipple cleft is a congenital anomaly of skeletal development, in which there is a violation of the integrity of the parietal bone, caused by a delay in its fusion with the frontal bone. The diagnosis is made during a prenatal ultrasound. Treatment is surgical during the first 2 months of life. Delivery by cesarean section followed by general anesthesia is recommended. Conservative therapy improves the child’s condition and reduces the risk of complications, but does not affect his life. The parietal bone, which consists of two parts (frontal and parietal), is initially divided into two parts where the coronoid and sagittal sutures intersect. The edges of the torn edges of the parietal bone heal over time. In the presence of developmental defects, the parietal bone is not fused with the edges of the visceral plates, which leads to the development of pathology of the skull. The risk of gill canal clefts increases with frequent cases of induced termination of pregnancy (abortion) and multiple pregnancies.

A congenital pathology observed in children, caused by a violation of the formation of the skull bones, in the form of a lack of connection between the anterior cranial bone and the upper cervical vertebrae in the form of a gap. Usually occurs in newborns (fetuses) during intrauterine development. However, doctors note that the gap appears rarely (one in 5-7 thousand children). The main place of formation of clefts is the upper part of the skull in the area of ​​the nasal septum, it is here that the process of the thalamus and the upper part of the fetal spine do not unite with part of the cranial bones and form the subuterine cleft or cleft of the Gill cavity. The earlier the first intrauterine injury occurred, the higher the risk of having a child with non-union syndrome. The extent of damage depends on the extent of the injury and the causes of its occurrence. In other words, if the injury occurred when the fetus was small, due to some harmful factors, the cleft may be very small. As the fetus grows in the uterus, healing may progress. If the injury occurred in the second half of the second and more than a third of the third week, the likelihood of a complete recovery is very low. Many children with the disease are born without severe damage, but with clear signs of a problem. Nowadays medicine is making significant progress. Treatment of the defect is usually carried out in the first 3-6 months of the patient’s life, due to this, complete restoration of the skin and head function is achieved. However, you should not expect quick results. Treatment for adults is similar in structure to treatment for children, however, due to the difference in the structural features of the skull of adults, differences are possible both in the healing process and in further rehabilitation. When treating an infant with a violation of the integrity of the skull tissue, intraoperative additional fixation is not always used, but rather tissue plastic surgery is performed. In children over 5 months. anterior bone grafting is contraindicated. In this case, posterior bone fixation may be used. The advantage of this method is that it has virtually no restrictions on the age of the patient. Cavity plastic surgery is carried out taking into account the patient’s age using plastic materials (mainly self-expanding artificial synthetic collagen materials) after the patient reaches a certain age, used and implanted by one of the surgical methods. The choice of plastic material for surgery depends on the age of the patient