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Meningomyelocele is a congenital malformation of the back, usually in the form of an open spine. It causes damage to the spinal cord. This leads to malfunction of the bladder and bowel, and difficulty in walking. Before modern surgical techniques were developed, kidney failure was a common cause of death in these cases because urine would back up in the bladder, causing an eventually fatal infection.
Today, however, children born with this birth defect can undergo ileal conduit surgery, a diversionary, life-sparing operation that prevents chronic kidney disease. Meningomyelocele, the most common of the major birth defects, does not of itself entail mental retardation. Frequently the child can walk without aid of braces or crutches.
Emotional Problems
Those of us working directly with these young people want to help them with more than regular physical examinations and prescriptions. As they approach adolescence, they inevitably experience a tangle of emotional conflicts.
Social isolation ranks high, a factor which often impairs the young person’s self-confidence and belief in his own ability to function in the everyday world. Frequently, they are over-protected by the family and have little informal, give-and-take contact
^vVith their peers, even in school. This, of course, height
83.3%