A Case of Multicystic Encephalomalacia in a Liveborn Twin with a Stillborn Co-twin

ABSTRACT

Multicystic encephalomalacia is the condition defined anatomically by the presence of multiple cavities in the great part of both cerebral hemispheres. The most common cause of the condition was regarded as the circulatory disturbance during the perinatal period. Also, neonatal asphyxia was the most important cause of the circulatory disturbance. But we experienced a case of multicystic encephalomalacia in a liveborn twin with a stillborn co-twin without perinatal asphyxia. It seems likely that intrauterine disseminated intravascular coagualation owing to fetofetal transfer of thromboplastic material from the dead fetus through vascular shunts in a monochorionic placenta without neonatal asphyxia constitute the main cause of the neurologic complication in our patient. So we report with a brief review and its related literatures.