Klippel‐Feil syndrome with other associated anomalies in a medieval Portuguese skeleton (13th–15th century)

Klippel‐Feil syndrome, or synostosis of the cervical spine, is the result of an abnormal division of somites during embryonic development. This report analyses an adult male (exhumed from a Portuguese graveyard dating from the 13th to the 15th century) with malformations in the cranium and vertebral column. Besides the lesions that are typical of Klippel‐Feil syndrome type II, other defects usually linked to this pathology are described (occipito‐atlantal fusion, hemivertebrae, butterfly vertebrae, cervical rib, changes in normal number of vertebral segments and a possible Sprengel deformity).