cranio-, crani-, cran- +

The failure of the neural tube to close in regions of both the brain and spinal cord.

The condition is associated with secondary defects in the cranium and the spinal column.

Severe congenital malformation in which thee is incomplete closure of the cranium and the spinal column.

1. A reference to the cranium and the sacrum which is the triangular bone at the base of the spine that joins to a hip bone on each side and forms part of the pelvis. In human beings, the sacrum consists of five fused vertebrae.
2. Relating to the parasympathetic autonomic system or that part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves and ganglia that arise from the cranial and sacral regions and function in opposition to the sympathetic system, as in inhibiting heartbeat or contracting the pupil of the eye.

An alternative therapy in which practitioners attempt to create positive effects by manipulating the bones of the skull and spine, as well as the fascia (flat layers of fibrous tissue that separate different layers of tissue) that underlies muscle tissue.

1. Congenital malformation in which there is incomplete closure of the cranium.

Usually accompanied by a grossly defective development of the brain.

2. The failure of the neural tube to close in the region of the brain.

It is associated with secondary defects in the usual overlying skull and scalp so that varying degrees of the abnormal brain are exposed.

Endoscopic examination of intracranial structures; especially, of the cerebral ventricles; for example, when tissue is to be excised for biopsy or the choroid plexus coagulated.

The choroid plexus is a membrane with many small blood vessels in the fluid spaces of the brain that secretes cerebrospinal fluid.

1. Pertaining to the cranium and the spinal, or vertebral, column.
2. Denoting a portion of the central nervous system.

The premature closure of the cranial statures and fontanelles (soft membraneous spots on the head of a baby as a result of the incomplete fusion of the cranial bones), resulting in a small, maldeveloped skull.

1. Thickening of the skull.
2. Premature fusion of the cranial sutures, usually occurring before birth, and resulting in deformity of the skull.

The fusion prevents the normal shape given to the cranium by the growth of the brain; therefore, fusion of the sagittal suture (line of union between the two parietal bones or side bones of the skull), the most common form, prevents lateral growth and allows compensatory expansion forward and backward, giving a long, narrow shape of the head, sometimes with a ridge at the metopic suture (persistent frontal suture or the seam or line at which two edges have been joined between the two halves of the frontal bone line (scaphocephaly).

Asymmetrical forms also occur.

A disease marked by the presence of areas of thinning and softening in the bones of the skull and widening of the sutures and fontanelles (soft membranous gaps between the incompletely formed cranial bones of a fetus or an infant). Usually of syphilitic (syphilis) or rachitic (rickets or bending of the bones) origin.

An instrument for making an opening or a cut in the cranium.

1. An operation producing an opening in the cranium.
2. A puncturing of the fetal skull to allow drainage of its contents so that vaginal deliver can be accomplished.

Now considered to be an obsolete technique to detect an abnormal thickness of the skull.

It involved a percussion of the skull with a pneumatoscope that was placed in the examiner's mouth.

The study of the relations between the external landmarks of the skull and the meninges (membrane that envelops the brain and the spinal cord), brain structures, and vessels within.

A type of cranioclast (instrument for crushing the head of a fetus, to facilitate delivery in difficult eases) which can also be used to apply traction to the fetus.