Lipomyelomeningocele

  • Etiology: failure of closure of posterior neural tube
  • Imaging: lipomatous mass and neural elements extending from the low-lying cord through a defect in the bone and contiguous with subcutaneous fat
  • Clinical: occult skin covered spinal dysraphism

Radiology Cases of Lipomyelomeningocele

MRI of lipomyelomeningocele
Sagittal T1 (left), T2 (middle) and T1 with contrast (right) MRI of the lumbar spine show a low-lying conus medullaris at the level of S2, which ends in a lipomatous mass that via a defect in the bone is contiguous with the subcutaneous fat posteriorly.