Genital anomalies of males (GAM-complex)

Between 1973-1982, the Hungarian Congenital Malformation Registry recorded 165 male index patients with two or more genital anomalies of the male (GAM) without other abnormalities. Of 17 'severe' GAM cases with penile or perineal hypospadias and other anomalies of external genitalia, clinical examination detected a recognizable syndrome in all but one case. A family study of 70 'mild' GAM cases with coronal or glandular hypospadias, undescended testes, and congenital inguinal hernia with or without minor genital anomalies, showed that 8.7% of index patients had fathers and brothers with GAM-type anomalies. The mild GAM cases seem to be a monotopic developmental field defect, the so-called GAM-complex.