The neonate was born with holoprosencephaly

Holoprosencephaly is a rare congenital brain malformation resulting from failure of diverticulation and cleavage of primitive prosencephalon which occurs at 4 - 8th week of gestation and is usually associated with multiple midline facial anomalies. it is the most common forebrain developmental anomaly in humans with prevalence of 1/16,000 in live borns, an incidence as high as 1:250 in conceptuses, and a worldwide distribution. the etiology of hpe is very heterogeneous. first, this pathology can be caused by environmental or metabolic factors. the only formally recognized environmental factors are insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (1% risk of hpe) and maternal alcoholism with a risk that cumulates with smoking. clinical expression is variable, extending in unbroken sequence from a small brain with a single cerebral ventricle and cyclopia to clinically unaffected carriers in familial holoprosencephaly. we report a holoprosencephalic newborn with antenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of; microcephaly, hypotelorism, flat nose, a single nostril; midline cleft lip and palate.