Abstract
Congenital Hand Deformities are probably the most frequent cause of non-traumatic complaint in consultations on paediatric hand surgery.
The incidence of occurrence is about 1 in 500 live births. Some of these abnormalities are minor and do not interfere with function. Many, however, have a significant functional and/or cosmetic deformity.
Only a few congenital malformations have a regular single gene mode of transmission, most have an irregular and unpredictable pattern of inheritance; sometimes occurs as part of a malformation syndrome or skeletal dysplasia, or in a sporadic way.
In fact, the cause for 40 to 50% of these anomalies is “unknown”.
Themes like handling the patient and parents and the psychological effects of the anomaly, the general principles of treatment, timing of surgery and the principles of reconstructive surgery are discussed.
The classification proposed by A.B. Swanson and revised with the assistance of the Congenital Anomalies Committee of the International Federation of Societies fo Surgery of the Hand will be used to propose the general guides of treatment.
The most common anomalies will be approached in more detail and the option of treatment is discussed in base of experience of the author.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Roger Lemaire. Correspondence should be addressed to EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
