Cobb syndrome

Cobb syndrome is a rare congenital disorder marked by a skin lesion, typically a port wine stain or other vascular birthmark, occurring on the same body segment as a spinal angioma or arteriovenous malformation. The intraspinal vascular lesion corresponds to the affected skin dermatome and can compress or damage the spinal cord, causing sudden pain, numbness, weakness or paralysis, most often appearing in childhood or early adulthood. It is believed to arise from a sporadic mutation, since affected children usually have unaffected parents and there is no clear inherited pattern. Fewer than 100 cases have been reported in the medical literature; the condition was first described in 1890 and became widely recognized after a 1915 report by Stanley Cobb.