A rare case of “human tail” associated with lipomyelomeningocele and tethered cord

摘要

Human tail might be the most interesting cutaneous sign of neural tube defects. From little cutaneous appendixes to 20-cm-long taillike lesions were reported in the literature. They may occur connected to an underlying pathology such as lipoma or teratoma, but most of the time, they conceal an underlying spinal dysraphism. Many classifications about human tails have been suggested in history, but the main approach to these lesions is, independent of the classification, always the same: investigating the possible spinal dysraphism with concomitant pathologies and planning the treatment on the patient basis.