Hutchinson syndrome

Last revised by Yahya Baba on 1 Mar 2024

Hutchinson syndrome is a seldom-used term to denote a syndromic presentation of children with craniocerebral neuroblastoma metastases.

Terminology

Unfortunately, there is a lack of consensus in the definition with two descriptions most commonly encountered in the literature:

  1. limping and irritability 1

  2. proptosis with periorbital and cranial bumps 2

The latter refers to the findings originally described by Hutchinson in 1907 (see below), and should, therefore, be favored as the definition. 

Additionally, and regardless of definition, Hutchinson syndrome should not be confused with:

History and etymology

In 1907 Sir Robert Grieve Hutchinson (1871-1960), a British radiologist, described intraorbital metastases from neuroblastoma in children. In this article, he makes a brief mention of extracranial bone metastases in two patients from his cohort of 10 children 2 - one concerning the tibia, and another the ribs. It is possible that this has led Lonergan et al. 1 to name the complex of limping and irritability from neuroblastoma bone metastases after Hutchinson, as no prior reference to this definition can be found in the reference given by Lonergan, or elsewhere. 

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