Syndromic and isolated cryptophthalmos.

Cryptophthalmos is the congenital absence of eyelid with skin passing continuously from the head to the cheeks over a malformed eye. The term cryptophthalmos was coined by Zehender and Manz in 1872, when they first described a patient with bilateral cryptophthalmos and multiple congenital anomalies(l). In 1962 Fraser described 4 cases of cryptophthalmos and multiple malformations in two sibships(2). Cryptophthalmos is not an isolated malformation but part of a syndrome, characterized by four cardinal signs namely cryptophthalmos, anomalies of head, nose and ears, syndactyly and genital abnormalities(3). Identification of cases with anomalies other than cryptophthalmos in;-siblings of affected cases led to the use of the eponymic designation "Fraser syndrome". Only 27 cases of isolated cryptophthalmos, in the absence of other malformations have been reported(4-6).