Porencephaly - Etiology

Etiology

Porencephaly is a rare disorder. The exact prevalence of porencephaly is not known; however, it has been reported that 6.8% of patients with cerebral palsy or 68% of patients with epilepsy and congenital vascular hemiparesis have porencephaly. Porencephaly has a number of different, often unknown, causes including absence of brain development and destruction of brain tissue. With limited research, the most commonly regarded cause of porencephaly is disturbances in blood circulation, ultimately leading to brain damage. However, a number of different and multiple factors such as abnormal brain development or damage to the brain tissue can also affect the development of porencephaly.

Based on current research, porencephalic cysts are developed due to lack of oxygen and blood supply to the brain leading to internal bleeding and cerebral degeneration. Monozygous twinning, maternal cardiac arrest, trauma during pregnancy, abdominal trauma, pathogenic infection, accidents, abnormal brain development during birth, vascular thrombosis, hemorrhage, brain contusion, cerebral degeneration, multifocal cerebrovascular insufficiency, systemic vascular insufficiency, placental bleeding, maternal toxemia, hypoxia, vascular occlusion, cystic periiventricular leukomalacia, cerebral atrophy, chronic lung disease, male gender, endotoxins, prenatal and postnatal encephalitis and meningitis, and drug abuse of mother are risk factors of developing porencephaly.

Cysts or cavities can occur anywhere within the brain and the locations of these cysts depend highly on the patient. Cysts can develop in the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, forebrain, hindbrain, temporal lobe, or virtually anywhere in the cerebral hemisphere.