[see pdf for figure

The reported cases of sagittal cleft vertebra are too few to permit a final clinical evaluation of the condition. It is evident, however, that from an orthopaedic standpoint, the cases fall into two principal groups, the symptomatic and the asymptomatic. The symptomatic group are usually characterized clinically by the presence of mild, moderate, or severe local deformity occasionally followed by pain, and roentgenographically by anterior compression of the vertebral body halves, and less frequently, by inequality of the two vertebral halves or their lateral displacement. In these cases, the sagittal cleft roentgenographically distinguishes the anomaly from unreduced vertebral body fractures with anterior or lateral compression and lateral displacement. Clinically the symptomatology may resemble that seen in old unreduced fractures of the vertebral body. Certain asymptomatic cases are characterized clinically by the absence of deformity. Roentgenographically they show division, not always complete, of the vertebral body into two equal halves, without anterior compression or lateral displacement. It seems unnecessary to discuss in detail the embryological and pathological aspects of this anomaly, which have been thoroughly reviewed so recently by Ehrenhaft.