Odd Purple Lump on Baby Boy's Head Could Be Rare Case of Brain Tissue Spilling Out, Case Report Reveals

A baby was born with an odd purple lump on his head. According to a report on his case, the baby boy had a skin defect and some brain tissue protruding from his skull.

Odd Purple Lump

The lump was situated on the right top portion of the baby boy's head. It was around 3.2 square centimeters and had a ring of some dark and long hairs around it. This ring is referred to as a hair collar sign, which may indicate a particular kind of neural tube defect.

These defects tend to occur when the neural tube, which is where the spinal cord and brain originate from, does not properly close during fetal development within the womb. In turn, such kinds of defects could result in brain tissue protrusions that turn into lumps over the scalp.

Aplasia Cutis Congenita (ACC)

Based on the case report, the boy was diagnosed with aplasia cutis congenita (ACC), which is a rare condition that affects one to three out of 10,000 children. ACC leads children to be born with a part of their body not having skin. In most cases, this body part is the scalp. At times, structures beneath the skin could get missing as well.

Dr. Jenna Borok, the study's lead author and a pediatric dermatologist from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, explains that most ACC cases occur on the scalp and appear to be a wound or ulcer that could be surrounded by significantly long hair.

While the exact causes behind ACC remain a mystery, there are several factors that may affect how the condition develops. These factors may include physical trauma or infection within the womb, drug exposure, or neural tube defects.

For the boy's case, he was diagnosed with a specific kind of ACC known as bullous ACC, which usually begins as a lump that is like a cyst and that can be full of fluid. The lump then becomes a smaller plaque that is coated with a thin membrane.

When the boy was just two weeks old, he was diagnosed with a bullous ACC with a hair collar sign. However, initial scans did not reveal that brain tissues were present inside the lump.

However, when the boy turned six years old, the lump was surgically removed. Doctors then discovered that the tissues exhibited signs of encephalocele, which is a neural tube defect wherein the tissue of the brain project's through a skull hole and creates a structure on the head that is similar to the sac. Hence, the boy's diagnosis was adjusted to "bullous ACC with encephalocele."

The case report authors did not explain if the boy faced any physical or intellectual impairments due to his condition.

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