BACKGROUND Cloacal malformation is a spectrum of diseases affecting females, resulting in abnormal confluence of the urinary system, genital system, and/or gastrointestinal system. Proper reconstruction depends mainly on accurate preoperative illustration of the abnormal anatomy. Among the various modalities to delineate the urogenital sinus and the distances to confluence, lies the radiologica...

Bladder exstrophy is a rare congenital anomaly, caused by abnormal development of the cloacal membrane. To our knowledge, 18 familial patients with this malformation have been described. Two sets of familial cases with bladder exstrophy are reported here: two cousins and a mother and son and the published reports of the 18 familial cases among 682 index patients with bladder exstrophy are revie...

The cloaca/urogenital sinus and its adjacent region differentiate into the urogenital/reproductive organs. Caudal regression syndrome (CRS; including mermaid syndrome), a type of severe cloacal malformation displays hindlimb fusion and urogenital organ defects, thus suggesting that such defects are caused by several morphogenetic alterations during early development. The attenuation of bone mor...

Cloacal dysgenesis sequence (CDS) is a lethal and rare congenital malformation; usually requiring termination of gestation. As prenatal ultrasonography remains a method with doubtable results, we used Fetal Magnetic Resonance Urography (FMRU) for the evaluation of a fetus at 18 weeks of gestation, suspected to cloacal anomalies. Prenatal imaging of the patient; showed smooth perineum, bilateral...

Cloacal exstrophy is a complex congenital malformation and presents more often than not as a spectrum of anomalies. Gender assignment is difficult in these babies because of the ambiguity of the genitalia and the major surgical undertaking which may make the salvage of certain delicate structures an arduous task. Awareness of the variety of ways in which the phallus may be positioned with respe...