MELKERSSON'S SYNDROME: Report of Five Cases, with Special Reference to the Pathologic Observations

Abstract

BY MELKERSSON'S syndrome one understands (a) peripheral facial palsy, which may be familial and which may show a tendency to relapse, (b) angioneurotic facial edema and (c) lingua plicata. Hübschmann¹ in 1894 and Rossolimo² in 1901 reported some cases in which besides relapsing facial palsy there was transient facial edema, while Melkersson³ in 1928 was the first to establish the facies morbi of relapsing facial palsy and chronic edema of the face. Rosenthal⁴ in 1931 added the third symptom, namely, lingua plicata. New and Kirch⁵ in 1933 communicated the information that at the Mayo Clinic in the course of twenty-two years they had observed 67 patients who had chronic noninflammatory swelling of the lips and face and that 13 of these suffered from facial palsy. In the Scandinavian medical literature the syndrome has been dealt with in detail by Ekbom and Wahlström⁶ (1942), who have given a detailed statement of