Pathology cases — Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

Without seeing any cases in the past 15 years, over the past couple of months I’ve seen two cases of agenesis of the corpus callosum.

The first case is a middle-aged man with moderate intellectual challenges who drowned while swimming in a lake.  Here’s a picture of the brain after fixation:

 

The second case was a very young infant who died at home in the context of possible unsafe sleeping conditions.  This is a photo of unfixed brain.  I did not suspect this lesion, and didn’t notice it until I had already prosected and discarded the cerebellum and brainstem.

Agenesis of the corpus callosum has variable symptoms.   In newborns, it is associated with other genetic issues in about 70% of cases.  People with this abnormality are at a higher rate of seizures, which is of importance both to sudden infant death and drowning.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.