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Craniofacial Conditions

What are the causes?

Craniosynostosis has a diversity of causes, the most important of which are abnormal pressure on the fetal skull inside the womb (intrauterine factors), and alterations in the genetic makeup (mutations). Intrauterine factors that predispose to craniosynostosis include having twins, reduced amniotic fluid, an abnormally shaped womb and breech position; commonly the mother reports that there was persistent discomfort during the pregnancy or that she had a feeling of the fetal head being stuck. These factors are believed to be especially important in sagittal and metopic synostosis, for which there is usually a low risk of the condition recurring in further children.

View What are the symptoms? What are the symptoms?  |  How is it diagnosed? View How is it diagnosed?

Medical text written February 1994 by Dr W Reardon, Senior Registrar in Clinical Genetics, Institute of Child Health, London, UK. Last updated December 2006 by Professor A Wilkie, Nuffield Professor of Pathology, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.

 

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