[Munchausen syndrome in children: report of 2 cases].

We report the existence of two cases of an infrequently know form of child abuse, Munchausen syndrome "by proxy" treated in the Department of Internal Medicine of the National Institute of Pediatrics. We have considered it necessary to emphasize the way this clinical entity is presented, pointing out the exact clinical data and how the relatives referred to them when faced with the treating physician, the number of people involved in treating the children as well as the exagerated number of laboratory and X-ray studies performed. The discrepancy in terminology to point to this disease, allows for the use of the term "Munchausen syndrome in children" to differentiate it from that used in psychiatry. The need to alert the medical community who treats these children on this rarely seen disease, will allow for its recognition and early treatment which avoid a reinforcement of the perpetrators attitudes.