MASSIVE FIBROMA OF THE MAXILLARY ANTRUM AS A PART OF MULTIPLE NEUROFIBROMATOSIS IN SIBLINGS

Abstract

No cases of familial massive fibromatosis of the maxillary antrum were found in a careful inspection of the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus. Two such cases were met in my practice, and because others had not been recorded it was decided to present these. GENERAL COMMENT Von Recklinghausen's disease, or multiple neurofibromatosis, is not rare. It is familial and sometimes congenital. Schröder¹ stated that heredity is involved in 17 per cent of the cases. The familial incidence has been reviewed by Castellino,² who observed the disease in a brother and a sister. Cockayne,³ in reviewing the inherited abnormalities of the skin, stated that the defect is inherited in a few families as a dominant. Clinically the disease is characterized by the association of multiple tumors of the nervous system, including the sympathetic, motor and sensory nerves, and sometimes abnormalities of the endocrine and vascular systems. It is not infrequently associated with