aplasia cutis

[chichirichi]

My son was born with aplasia cutis. He has a small coin sized bald patch on the head. He is almost 4, is a great kid, happy, smart , terrible handsome and very sociable. Recently he asked me what is this thing he feels on his head when touching it. It doesn't seems to hurt him or bothering him. I was wondering just in case we ever consider surgery to remove the spot - if there is anybody there who did surgery for their baby , what do you suggest: to do it at this early age or just to wait for him to decide. What are the possible side effects if doing surgery now, what do we expect ?

[DianaR12]

My daughter was born with cutis aplasia. She had surgery at 15 months and I'm very glad I didn't wait. She had tissue expanders placed under the scalp and over a period of 16 weeks, she had a small amount of saline injected into them. It expanded them slowly to "stretch out" the scalp so the surgeon had enough "extra skin" to replace the scar tissue/bald spot that he removed. It was very difficult because she had her head shaved for the surgery and then as the expanders grew under her scalp, she looked like she had two lumps/growths coming out of the top of her head. Younger kids didn't pay that much attention, but older kids and adults would just gawk at her head. It was awful, but honestly, I'm glad we did it when we did rather than waiting until she was in school. I would check into it as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the more likely it will be that other kids tease him. Good luck!

[AOS]

I would like to inform you about an an going research study on aplasia cutis in Boston; to learn more: ***@****

[margypops]

Some may have answers here or you may want to go back to the forums page and look at the list on the right which are the exeprt/Doctor forums, I have no doubt someone will be able to help you Good Luck