A rare congenital malformation syndrome, most commonly presenting with hemifacial microsomia associated with ear and/or eye malformations and vertebral anomalies of variable severity. Additional malformations involving the heart, kidneys, central nervous, digestive and skeletal systems may also be associated. The phenotypic spectrum ranges from isolated mild facial asymmetry to severe bilateral craniofacial microsomia and additional multiple extracranial abnormalities. Intelligence is typically normal. The aetiology is poorly understood but is suspected to be heterogeneous and multifactorial. The gene MYT1 (20q13.33) has been implicated in a few rare cases, and chromosomal abnormalities have been associated with some of the congenital malformations associated with this condition. The condition usually occurs sporadically, but autosomal dominant inheritance has been reported.

Holoprosencephaly-9 refers to a disorder characterized by a wide phenotypic spectrum of brain developmental defects, with or without overt forebrain cleavage abnormalities. It usually includes midline craniofacial anomalies involving the first branchial arch and/or orbits, pituitary hypoplasia with panhypopituitarism, and postaxial polydactyly. The disorder shows incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity (summary by Roessler et al., 2003 and Bertolacini et al., 2012). For general phenotypic information and a discussion of genetic heterogeneity of holoprosencephaly, see HPE1 (236100).

Scalp-ear-nipple syndrome is characterized by aplasia cutis congenita of the scalp, breast anomalies that range from hypothelia or athelia to amastia, and minor anomalies of the external ears. Less frequent clinical characteristics include nail dystrophy, dental anomalies, cutaneous syndactyly of the digits, and renal malformations. Penetrance appears to be high, although there is substantial variable expressivity within families (Marneros et al., 2013).

Arboleda-Tham syndrome (ARTHS) is an autosomal dominant disorder with the core features of impaired intellectual development, speech delay, microcephaly, cardiac anomalies, and gastrointestinal complications (summary by Kennedy et al., 2019).

Sandestig-Stefanova syndrome (SANDSTEF) is an autosomal recessive developmental syndrome characterized by pre- and postnatal microcephaly, trigonocephaly, congenital cataract, microphthalmia, facial gestalt, camptodactyly, loss of periventricular white matter, thin corpus callosum, delayed myelinization, and poor prognosis (Sandestig et al., 2019).