Syndactyly as Symptome or Part of Plurimalformative Syndrome in Pediatric Patology. Clinical and Therapeutical Considerations

Background: Syndactyly is the most common congenital malformation of the limbs. Syndactyly can be classified as simple when it involves soft tissues only and classified as complex when it involves the bone or nail of adjacent fingers. Syndactyly can occur as isolated condition or in conjuction with other symptoms as one aspect of a multi-symptom disease.
Aim: The author’s purpose is to present this condition in hospitalized patients in order to make some considerations about the frequency of association with other anomalies and the treatment of this condition.
Material and methods: Between 2000–2009, 83 cases of hand malformations were diagnosed and treated at Plastic Surgical Department of Children Hospital Brasov and Fogolyan Kristof Hospital Sfantu Gheorghe. Observational retrospective study on this group found that 39 of these were syndactyly and 44 polidactyly (control group).
Results: We have found 2 cases of sinpolidactyly and 12 cases of plurimalformation. The Apgar score as well the birth weight of children with plurimalformations were lower than of those with simple syndactyly (p = 0.0153). The average age of surgical intervention was 3.370 years (SD = 4.267, p = 0.0001). The hand malformation was bilateral in 26 cases. Out of the 39 cases of syndactyly, 17 needed full-thickness skin graft.
Conclusions: The goal of syndactyly release is to create a functional hand with the fewest surgical procedures while mimimizing complication. Reconstruction of the web commisure is the most technically challenging part of the operation, followed by separation of the remaining digits.