A third patient with median cleft upper lip, mental retardation and pugilistic facies (W syndrome): corroboration of a hitherto private syndrome.

We report a severely mentally retarded young male with the features of the W syndrome. This syndrome, to date described in only two brothers of one family, is characterized by severe mental retardation with seizures and a pattern of facial dysmorphisms including high broad forehead, down-slanting palpebral fissures, hypertelorism, abnormal configuration of the maxilla and mandible, peculiar nose, and incomplete midline oral cleft. The face has been compared to that of a boxer (pugilistic face). Mild skeletal anomalies have also been described. Inheritance is probably X-linked. The present report corroborates the existence of this hitherto private syndrome.