A Tale of Two Tails: Not Just Skin Deep.
The dorsal cutaneous appendage or the so called human tail is a rare congenital anomaly protruding from the lumbo-sacro-coccygeal area. These caudal appendages are divided into true-tails and pseudo-tails. We report here two cases of congenital pseudo-tail with underlying spina bifida and lipo-meningocele. In this article we seek to emphasize that, as the skin and nervous systems are intimately linked by their similar ectodermal origin, a dorsal appendage may be regarded as a cutaneous marker of the underlying spinal dysraphism.
Department of Pediatric Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Abhijit
A
Dutta
Department of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprosy, RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Sudip Kumar
SK
Ghosh
Department of Pediatric Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Asok Kumar
AK
Mandal
Human tail; lipo-meningocele; spinal dysraphism