The baby was born with only 8 fingers, missing 2 thumbs, which greatly worried the parents.
Both thumbs are malformed, what should be done?
This 7-month-old baby has Type V thumb hypoplasia on both hands, with a complete absence of thumb bones in the right hand and a lack of finger bones in the left hand. Because there are no thumbs, the child can only grip objects using the index and middle fingers, which looks awkward.
Before the surgery
After reviewing the child's condition, it is possible to consider performing pollicization of the index finger on both hands.
Pollicization involves transferring the index finger to the remaining portion of the thumb to reconstruct a thumb. This surgical method yields good postoperative appearance and functionality.
After hearing this, the father hesitated and asked, "Can reconstruction be done?" He didn't want the child to have the index finger as a thumb.
I understand the parents' emotions, but I still told him, "If reconstruction is done by taking bone from the foot, it is highly likely that the hand won't be functional, and the foot may also be affected."
Since the right hand has a complete absence of palm bones, the best current option is pollicization, although there may be some differences compared to a normal thumb, the functional outcome is still good.
Before the surgery
If the left hand doesn't want to have only 4 fingers, we can leave it as it is for now and consider using prosthetic fingers when the child is older.
The father nodded, and in the end, the parents chose pollicization. The surgery went smoothly, successfully transferring the index finger to the thumb position.
During the follow-up examination after six months, it was observed that the child had excellent grasping ability and coordination. With continuous functional exercises, I believe the child's right hand will become more and more agile!
Follow-up examination