Urachal anomalies: ultrasonography and management
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The reported cases were gathered from patients with or without symptoms who underwent an abdominal ultrasound examination in our hospital. The lower abdominal wall of consecutive children was examined with a real-time ultrasound 3.5-MHz convex probe (Aroca) with any detected lesions being examined with a 7.5-MHz anura alley transducer (Aroca; Tokyo, Japan). Midline hypoechoic lesions posterior to the rectus abdominis muscle and ventral to the apex of the bladder were identified as the urachus
Sonography
Ultrasonography detected 56 urachal remnants during the 4-year period. Children with urachal remnant detected by ultrasound scan were treated if necessary and observed. Ultrasonography was carried out for diagnosis of patient’s complaints in 40 patients (71%), and for follow-up for other diseases in 16 cases (29%) when their urachal remnants were found. The urachal remnant was believed to be the underlying cause of the symptoms in 20 cases of the 40 patients. In the remaining patients, the
Discussion
According to Begg,1 the persistence of the urachus was described and treated for the first time in 1550 by Bartholomaeus Cabrolius. The urachus is an allantoic remnant that is located between the umbilicus and the dome of the bladder. It lies in the space of Retzius behind the transversalis fascia and anterior to the peritoneum. Usually, the lumen is obliterated during fetal life, and the remnant forms the median umbilical ligament. However, a vestigial small lumen lined by transitional
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Anatomic Variants of Urachal Remnants in Children
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