Abstract

Background: There is no curative or satisfactory effective therapy for the nervous tissue damage associated with myelomeningocele which generally results in a serious disability. The aim of this paper is to describe retrospectively the treatment of four patients with myelomeningocele, three of them were treated with new therapies.

Patients and methods: During one-year period from June,2018 to June 2019, four patients with myelomeningocele were observed. Three of the patients were referred for us for treatment and received new therapies aiming at treating the nervous tissue damage associated with myelomeningocele and improving the associated neurological dysfunction. The fourth observed patient was treated by other physicians mainly with physiotherapy and received no specific medical therapy. All the patients had hydrocephalus of variable severity and three of them have already been treated with a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. Parenteral cerebrolysin was used in three patients with the aim of regenerating the spinal cord cells. Nandrolone decanoate was used in one patient with aim of strengthening muscles of legs. Result: Treatment of the three patients resulted in a significant improvement that has never been reported before with this condition, and without the occurrence of any side effects. The fourth patients who was not treated by us didn’t show any improvement.

Conclusion: The use of new therapies for the treatment of myelomeningocele was found to be very useful and without the occurrence of any side effects. Study of the use of these therapies in a larger number of patients is recommended.

Keywords: Myelomeningocele; Treatment; Cerebrolysin; Nandrolone; Physiotherapy