Poland anomaly--report of an unusual family.

A family with classical Poland anomaly presenting in the son and a partially affected mother is reported. We hypothesize that Poland anomaly has a multifactorial basis involving vascular compromise in early development. Two possible predisposing factors are aberrant vascular formation and thrombophilia. The investigation of our family has not demonstrated an abnormality in coagulation, therefore, we surmise that an inherited structural variant of blood vessel formation is responsible. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.