Facial paralysis at the age of 2 months as a first clinical sign of van Buchem disease (endosteal hyperostosis).

In this paper we report a 7.5-year-old physically normal boy with van Buchem disease (endosteal hyperostosis). Vague complaints of headache were the indication for X-ray examination. At the age of 2 months a left-side peripheral facial nerve palsy suddenly occurred in this boy. Skull X-rays gave normal results at that age, suggesting that encroachment of the cranial nerves in van Buchem disease may occur as early as in the postnatal period, even before sclerosis of the skull has become radiologically visible.