A rare birth defect leaves a baby with a giant red balloon-like sac on his back

Doctors have documented a boy born with an attractive condition: a red bag, like a balloon on his back.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital detailed the case last month in the New England Journal of Medicineas part of a regular segment highlighting unusual medical images. The baby’s balloon sac was a rare complication of a relatively common birth defect, one that had left a space open in his spine. Despite its alarming appearance, the doctors were able to successfully remove the sac without major problem and the child seemed to recover without lasting developmental problems.

The child was born with a type of neural tube defect (NTD), a condition that influence about 1 in every 1000 people. The neural tube is a structure that forms early in the embryo’s gestation and is the basis from which the brain and spinal cord later develop. Usually, the tube closes completely by the fourth week of pregnancy, but sometimes it doesn’t completely, which then causes a gap to form in the spine and spine. This type of NFD is specifically known as spina bifida.

In the milder casesPeople may never experience symptoms of their spina bifida, often not even discovering it until they are adults through an incidental imaging test. In the the most serious casespart of the baby’s spine can push through the opening and form a bag that contains spinal fluid, meninges (one of the protective layers of the brain), and tissue of the nervous system or nerves. This form can lead to serious problems such as structural defects of the brain, problems with normal movement, and delays in the development of life.

The child’s form of spina bifida fell somewhere in the middle, which is known as meningocele. His protruding pouch was certainly large, measuring about 3 inches by 2.8 inches by 2 inches. Importantly, however, it contains only spinal fluid and meninges, and not any spinal cord or brain tissue. An image of the bag can be seen herealthough fair warning: it’s pretty gnarly.

There are things that can increase the chance of being born with NFD, such as the mother taking certain medications or a lack of folic acid before development (this is why pregnant women are often recommended to take folic acid supplements). But according to doctors, the mother and the fetus do not have high risk factors. So it looks like this was just an unfortunate coincidence.

Fortunately, six days after the birth of the child, surgical doctors remove the bag and repair the child’s defect. Four days later, he was well enough to be released from the hospital. And at a six-month follow-up visit, the child’s development was found to be normal.