Gardner's syndrome: a clinical and genetic study of a family.

OBJECTIVE

Gardner syndrome (GS) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder with almost complete penetrance (80%) and variable expression. GS is a variant of familial adenomatous polyposis and characterized by extracolonic manifestations including osteomas and soft tissue tumors (desmoid tumors, epidermoid cysts). We describe clinical and surgical approaches in a family in which the genetic disorder was diagnosed in 3 generations.

STUDY DESIGN

The studied family underwent clinical history and instrumental and genomic studies. Two members of this family, affected with GS, underwent surgery for skeletal osteomas.

RESULTS

The patients that we treated with clinical-instrumental monitoring for a period of 5 years had no major disturbances of the stomatognathic system and no clinical signs of pathology of the gastrointestinal tract, eyes, or endocrine systems.

CONCLUSIONS

The orofacial complex disorders are exclusively functional and esthetic, concerning primarily the stomatognathic system. We had no cases of malignant transformation of osteomatosis lesions. Clinical sequelae are manly facial eumorphy and occlusion problems of the temporomandibular joint.