Suzanne B. Cassidy

Introduction and Overview of Prader-Willi Syndrome

In 1680, a painter to the Spanish court of King Charles II, Juan Carreno de Miranda, immortalized on canvas a six year old obese girl who was known for her “feeblemindedness” and “bad temper”. She has almond-shaped palpebral fissures, a down-turned mouth, small hands, and central obesity, all characteristic of Prader-Willi Syndrome. She hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid, clad in one painting, nude in the other, a testimony to the fact that the condition we now know as Prader-Willi Syndrome has existed for centuries. But it was not until 1956 that Drs. Prader, Labhart and Willi first described the pattern of abnormalities which includes low muscle tone, incomplete sexual development, obesity, and mental handicap (Prader et al, 1956) and which now bears their names.

Antero-Posterior Cephalometric Analysis of the Craniofacial Complex in the Prader-Willi Syndrome

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a multisystem disorder with characteristic clinical features including hypotonia, hypogonadism, insatiable appetite, truncal obesity, mild mental deficiency, short stature, small hands and feet, and facial dysmorphology. The typical facies are described as a combination of the following features: almond-shaped palpebral fissures which may be upslanting, long narrow face, downturned mouth, and thin upper lip (Cassidy, 1984).