Dyssegmental dysplasia Silverman-Handmaker type in a consanguineous Druze Lebanese family: long term survival and documentation of the natural history.

We report on a male infant born with clinical and radiographic evidence of a lethal form of dyssegmental dysplasia not comparable to Silverman-Handmaker type, who had a prolonged survival of more than eight months. He had ocular and central nervous system abnormalities which have not been previously described. His course included significant feeding and respiratory difficulties, severe physical and psychomotor retardation, and recurrent fever of unknown etiology believed to be of central origin. The relatively long survival of this infant enabled us to focus on the natural history of this rare syndrome. The infant was born to first cousin parents of Druze Lebanese origin supporting an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance for the condition. This is the first documentation of dyssegmental dysplasia Silverman-Handmaker type in a family of Druze Lebanese ethnicity.