the EVC gene and hence is allelic with Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome. Treatment There is no causative / curative therapy. Symptomatic medical treatments are focussing on symptoms caused by orthopaedic, dental or cardiac problems. Regarding perioperative / anesthesiological management, recommendations for medical professionals are published at OrphanAnesthesia. History The disorder was described by Richard W. B. Ellis (1902–1966) of Edinburgh and (1895–1971) of Amsterdam. Each had a patient with this syndrome, as they had discovered when they met in the same train compartment on the way to a pediatrics conference in England in the late 1930s. A third patient had been referred to by L. Emmett Holt, Jr. and Rustin McIntosh in a textbook of pediatrics (Holt and McIntosh, 1933) and was included in full in the paper by Ellis and Van Creveld (1940). McCusick et al. (1964) followed up with a study of its incidence in the Amish population. He observed the largest pedigree so far, in an inbred religious isolate, the Old Order Amish, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Almost as many persons were known in this one kindred as had been reported in all the medical literature up to that time. Nomenclature 'Six-fingered dwarfism' ('digital integer deficiency') was an alternative designation used for this condition when it was being studied in the Amish and may have served a useful function in defining this then little known condition for the medical profession, as well as the lay public. The term, however, has been found offensive by some because of the reference to the polydactyly, which is seen as a 'freakish' label. For this reason, six-fingered dwarfism has been removed as an alternative name for this entry. This leaves Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome with its initialism, EVC, as the only satisfactory designation. Chondroectodermal dysplasia and mesoectodermal dysplasia do not well define the entity and are not satisfactory for general usage, either medical or otherwise. References External links Autosomal recessive disorders Genodermatoses Syndromes affecting the heart Syndromes affecting teeth Syndromes affecting stature Syndromes with dysmelia Rare genetic syndromes