Symbrachydactyly

How is symbrachydactyly treated?

Treatment of symbrachydactyly varies from child to child.

• In some cases, no surgery or only minor skin and soft-tissue corrections are needed.
• If your child has a severe case, he or she may need to have bones transferred (often from the toes) to add length to the affected fingers.

These procedures are usually performed when your child is between 6 and 18 months old. In some cases, a toe or multiple toes are transplanted to the affected hand so that your child will eventually be able to pinch, pick up and hold objects.

• Treatment also includes follow-up visits, which are necessary to ensure that healing has gone well and function has returned to your child's hand.

In some cases, follow-up will continue for years to evaluate whether additional surgery is required to improve the function or appearance of the hand as your child grows.

What’s the long-term outlook for my child?

In many cases, children are able to adapt to their physical limitations and go on to live a life with full functional. If surgery is required for your child, she will most likely recover enough function in the fingers to live a perfectly normal life.