[Papillon-Lefèvre syndrome. Presentation of a case]

The authors report a case of hyperkeratosis palmoplantaris with periodontosis (Papillon-Lefèvre syndrome) in a five year old male patient. This patient showed hyperkeratosis over palms, soles, knees and premature periodontoclasia. No other abnormalities were detected on physical examination and the personal and familial antecedents were negative. There is no history of consanguinity of his parents. Roentgenographic examination of his skull did not reveal ectopic calcification of the falk cerebri or tentorium. The skin biopsy of the lesions exhibit marked hyperkeratosis, acantosis and a moderate perivascular infiltrate composed mainly of mononuclears, localized in the upper dermis. The corium showed a mild atrophy. We assumed that this case resulted from homozygosity for autosomal recessive genes. Considering this is the first case detected in Panama with a population near two millions habitant, it supports the low frequency of the disorder, estimated roughly at one to four per million persons in the general population, according Gorlin et al.