Ellis Van Creveld (EVC) syndrome is one of the congenital anomalies not compatible with life. It is also known as chondroectodermal dysplasia. The most common manifestations of this syndrome are short ribs, postaxial polydactyly, growth retardation, and ectodermal and cardiac defects. It has an incidence of one in every 60,000 live births and equal sex predisposition. In our case, perinatal autopsy was performed in a stillborn baby of 32 weeks of gestation having syndactyly, polydactyly and short forearms to know the cause of death and the diagnosis emerged as EVC syndrome. It is important to diagnose EVC syndrome as it is transmitted as an autosomal recessive disorder, so genetic counseling is required to make parents aware of the risk of recurrence.

We describe a 7-year-boy with severe prenatal and postnatal growth retardation, skeletal changes, normal intellect, and unusual facial appearance. The skeletal changes are suggestive of osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II (OPD II). He is the first patient of this kind from the Indian subcontinent and the 18th to be reported, based on a literature search (MEDLINE; 1982 to April 1997). He also represents the first case of OPD-II with normal intellect but delayed central nervous system myelination.

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