The abdominal muscle deficiency triad syndrome--experience with ten cases

The triad or "prune belly" syndrome comprising deficient abdominal muscles, megaloureters with gegacystis and undescended testes has been considered a fairly rare anomaly. The Canadian Province of Saskatchewan appears to have had an unusually high incidence of this condition and it was hoped that epidemiologic investigation of the ten most recent cases might contribute information about the basic etiology of the syndrome. It is suggested that a previously unreported association with monozygotic twinning, apparent in the presently reported series, along with the well-recognized almost exclusive limitation of the syndrome to males, may provide major clues in further investigations of this condition.