We report a boy with a trichorhinophalangeal syndrome (TRP syndrome), severe mental retardation, and transient megacephaly, whose karyotype showed complex, apparently balanced, translocations with breakpoints in bands 3q13, 8p22, 8q13, 11p12, and 11q21. The fact that cases presenting with phenotypes corresponding to the TRP II syndrome and deletions of the long arm of chromosome 8 have been recently reported prompted us to report this case to help in the clarification of the possible relation between 8q chromosomal mutation and the aetiology of TRP syndromes.