Do babies with congenital syndactyly with short fingers must be operated? Doctors: Not necessarily

At the beginning of the month, we had a baby from Yunnan who had Poland syndrome, where the whole right hand was smaller than the left hand, and there were problems with parallel fingers with short fingers, the shape was not very good, but the function was good, the baby’s hand could be separated and could grasp things, and could do many things. With surgery, it may just turn 97% into 99%, so is the 2% that important for the baby? This is a question for parents to consider. If the parents are more demanding in terms of appearance, they can have surgery, but as a doctor, it is not always necessary or essential to have surgery. So when is surgical intervention necessary? If the parents notice that the baby’s fingers are off when grasping large objects, slipping when holding things, and the joints are unstable, this is when intervention is needed. We have to separate the parallel fingers and strengthen the joints. If the fingers are stable, albeit a little finicky, there can be no intervention. The parents of this baby also mentioned the problem of lengthening of the short fingers. If the palm of the hand is large and the fingers are short, we can lengthen the fingers. If the palm of the hand is small and the fingers are also short, simply lengthening the fingers will look like a spider’s hand, and the proportions will be incongruous and unattractive. This baby belongs to the latter case, so just let the baby play more toys, more hands on it, the more flexible the hand will be used.