Renpenning syndrome

Renpenning syndrome is a disorder that almost exclusively affects males, causing developmental delay, moderate to severe intellectual disability, and distinctive physical features. Individuals with Renpenning syndrome typically have short stature and a small head size (microcephaly). Facial features characteristic of this disorder include a long, narrow face; outside corners of the eyes that point upward (upslanting palpebral fissures); a long, bulbous nose with a low-hanging separation between the nostrils (overhanging columella); a shortened space between the nose and mouth (philtrum); and cup-shaped ears. Males with Renpenning syndrome generally have small testes. Seizures and wasting away (atrophy) of muscles used for movement (skeletal muscles) may also occur in this disorder.

About 20 percent of individuals with Renpenning syndrome also have other features, which may include a gap or split in structures that make up the eye (coloboma), an opening in the roof of the mouth (cleft palate), heart abnormalities, or malformations of the anus.

Certain combinations of the features that often occur in Renpenning syndrome are sometimes called by other names, such as Golabi-Ito-Hall syndrome or Sutherland-Haan syndrome. However, all these syndromes, which have the same genetic cause, are now generally grouped under the term Renpenning syndrome.