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Start free with EleplanMucopolysaccharidosis type 3
ORPHA:581Disease
Also called MPS3 · MPSIII · Mucopolysaccharidosis type III · Sanfilippo disease · Sanfilippo syndrome
What it is
A group of rare lysosomal storage diseases characterized by progressive neurocognitive decline, loss of functional abilities and premature death. There are four etiological subtypes of mucopolysaccharidosis type 3 (MPS III, Sanfilippo syndrome) called Sanfilippo syndrome type A, B, C, and D. Each subtype is caused by deficiency of a particular enzyme involved in the degradation of heparan sulfate leading to substrate accumulation and cellular dysfunction.
Key facts
- Prevalence
- 1-9 / 1 000 000 (Europe)
- Age of onset
- Childhood
- Inheritance
- Autosomal recessive
- Classified as
- Disease
Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.
Signs and symptoms
Very common80–99%
12- Central nervous system degeneration
- Chronic otitis media
- Coarse hair
- Delayed speech and language development
- Generalized hirsutism
- Intellectual disability, progressive
- Intellectual disability, severe
- Malabsorption
- Mucopolysacchariduria
- Progressive neurologic deterioration
- Sleep abnormality
- Urinary glycosaminoglycan excretion
Common30–79%
32- Abnormal facial shape
- Abnormal form of the vertebral bodies
- Abnormality of skeletal morphology
- Abnormality of the clavicle
- Abnormal rib morphology
- Adenoiditis
- Ataxia
- Atypical behavior
- Brain imaging abnormality
- Cataract
- Coarse facial features
- Craniofacial hyperostosis
- Developmental regression
- Gait disturbance
- Genu valgum
- Hearing impairment
- Heparan sulfate excretion in urine
- Hepatomegaly
- Hirsutism
- Hyperactivity
- Hypertonia
- Intermittent diarrhea
- Myopia
- Otitis media
- Recurrent sinopulmonary infections
- Recurrent tonsillitis
- Respiratory tract infection
- Specific learning disability
- Splenomegaly
- Synophrys
- Thick hair
- Vocal cord paresis
These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.
Genes reported in subtypes
Orphanet records these genes on 4 more specific entries under this disorder, not on this entry itself:
A well-studied disease is usually split into subtypes, and the gene is curated on whichever one the evidence belongs to. Open a subtype to see which gene goes with it.
ICD-10 codes
ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.
Related health topics
Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.
Cross-references
Orphadata Science: Free access data from Orphanet. © INSERM 1999. Data version 2026-06-23. Available under CC BY 4.0. This is a reference, not medical advice.
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