[Asymmetric crying facies syndrome: report of 16 clinical cases].

The Asymmetric Crying Facies (ACF) is included among the congenital facial palsy in childhood. We report the clinical characteristics, congenital anomalies and other associated disorders in sixteen patients with ACF examined from 1984 to 1995 in the pediatric units of the Hospital Adolfo Pons, Universitario and Clínico of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Statistically the side of lesion and the sex were independent. In seven of sixteen patients (43.75%) we found congenital anomalies and/or neurological disorders, being diaphragmatic hernia and the hyperkinesia a rare association no reported up to now in the reviewed literature. We suggest autosomal dominant inheritance with reduced penetrance in three of sixteen families. The other patients were sporadic cases.