The term “syndactyly” is unfamiliar to many people, but it is actually one of the more common congenital malformations of the limbs, and is second only to polydactyly in terms of prevalence. For this group of people, they all have the same performance, that is, two or more fingers of the tissue structure of the complete or incomplete connection. Some time ago, I saw a 2-year-old baby with syndactyly of both hands, who had incomplete syndactyly of the left hand and complete syndactyly of the right hand. When it was discovered that the baby had syndactyly, the mom and dad went to a number of hospitals around the country in order to treat their child, and the answer they got was basically that the split-finger surgery would have to be performed on the baby’s tummy to remove the skin. Since this will leave a more obvious scar on the baby, they were very hesitant to undergo the surgery immediately, until they learned about the skin-implant-free technique on the Internet, which is how they found me. After some communication, this baby’s mom and dad also made up their mind to have the split finger surgery for their baby. Therefore, I would like to share the knowledge of syndactyly treatment with you through this case: A. When is the best time for syndactyly treatment? Generally speaking, if your baby is healthy, you can have the syndactyly surgery when he/she is about 6 months old. Many parents of babies with syndactyly are confused about this, and there are two reasons for choosing such a time period: 1, babies at this stage usually weigh more than 6kg, and their bodies can withstand anesthesia. 2, as babies are relatively small, the anesthesia can be performed at a later stage. 3, babies with syndactyly can be treated at a later stage. 2.Because the baby is relatively small, his skin defects are also relatively small after the syndactyly surgery, and the skin will grow relatively faster after the surgery. What kind of examination should be done in advance before the surgery? Specific pre-operative checkups should be arranged by the attending doctor. Take this baby as an example, because their family is in the north, they need to have a nucleic acid test and a heart ultrasound done 3 days in advance before coming to Wuhan due to the need for epidemic prevention and control. As for other tests, you can wait until you come to the clinic and then make arrangements. Can the fingers be separated at once? We will try our best to separate all the fingers at once, but whether the fingers can be separated at one time depends on the type of fingers your baby has. Generally speaking, babies with simple incomplete syndactyly can be separated in one operation if there are no other implications. As for complex syndactyly, for example, if the middle, ring and little fingers are joined together, this case will affect the blood flow of one or two of the fingers if they are separated at one time. Whether the fingers can be separated at once or not should be determined after an accurate evaluation by the doctor. Do I need a skin graft for the syndactyly? Split finger can be implanted, can not be implanted, now, then, briefly introduce the difference between these two ways: 1, the advantages and disadvantages of traditional skin grafting Advantage: once the transplanted skin survives, the healing will be relatively fast Disadvantage: generally take the skin part of the baby’s stomach, it will leave obvious scars; the recipient area of the skin will be hyperpigmented, the color is darker than the normal skin color of the hand (usually from the stomach) On the skin, the hands of the implanted skin will become black, sometimes will grow hair); implanted skin is not 100% on the live, if not survived, it is more troublesome; 2, free of implanted skin advantages and disadvantages Advantages: First of all, the most important is that you do not need to take the skin, do not have to worry about the baby on the body of the rest of the body will be damaged and scarring; regeneration of the skin after the skin looks very much like the normal skin; there is no necrosis of the possibility (because the use of artificial dermis is to allow skin to grow slowly from the surrounding normal skin to the center, so the healing will be a little slower). Disadvantages: the speed of skin growth will grow slower than after the survival of their own skin; relatively high requirements for parental care, because we will wrap the little hand, during the skin growth period, the child’s hand can not be wet, soak, because there will be contamination, easy to infection. Fifth, after the split finger surgery will not leave a scar? For this question, in fact, no matter what kind of surgery will leave a scar, just the depth of the scar. For the use of skin graft-free technology, as long as the parents later care better, and scar removal treatment, you can make the affected area of the scar as inconspicuous as possible. In conclusion, for babies with syndactyly, if the physical condition permits, try to have the split finger treatment as early as possible to release the constraints on the fingers, which is conducive to the development of the fingers.