Rare skeletal disorders: a multidisciplinary postnatal approach to diagnosis and management

Skeletal disorders are inherited disorders with significant skeletal involvement and most of them are rare or extremely rare. Based on the clinical, radiological and genetic phenotype, the group of skeletal disorder comprises more than 450 different and highly heterogeneous disorders. In skeletal disorders rapid and precise diagnoses are urgently needed for patient care and are based on the combination of clinical, radiological and genetic analysis. Novel genetic techniques have revolutionized diagnostics and have a huge impact on counseling of patients and families. Disease-specific long-term management in a multidisciplinary healthcare team in highly specialized centers is recommended to optimize care for these patients. Here we describe a multidisciplinary postnatal approach for the diagnosis and management of patients and families with rare skeletal disorders at the Vienna Bone and Growth Center. We discuss the value of a multidisciplinary diagnostic and management approach in the postnatal setting and provide a diagnostic flowchart for rare skeletal disorders.