Floating bunion-guaranteed five-finger reconstruction with hemimetacarpal bone graft reconstruction

The floating thumb has feeling, not no feeling. Without sensation, even if it is made functional, cold and heat cannot be felt, sharp objects cannot be protected, and the significance of keeping it is debatable, but the floating thumb has sensation. If the floating thumb is removed, the thumb’s sensory innervation area in the cerebral cortex cannot be utilized, and it will have an impact on the child to a greater or lesser extent, which is why we will do our best to preserve it. From the parents’ point of view, parents also want their children to have a complete hand. From the child’s social psychology, preservation also makes a lot of sense. If the child only has four fingers, then the child may be reluctant to play games, participate in activities, etc. inside the kindergarten, and this does happen. The child may be too young to express his/her feelings clearly, but floating thumbs do have an impact on the child’s mental health. This is why many parents come to me for surgery. The first surgical method was to remove the bunion, which was very simple and brutal. After removal, the bunion was bunionized, using the finger as a thumb in the opposite palmar position, and then shortened and reconstructed to form the tiger’s mouth. This method was more effective at that stage. With the advancement of medicine, surgical techniques kept improving, and we doctors and parents had a request, could we keep the thumb? One professor came up with the option of metatarsal reconstruction. We have done a lot of this program, but after doing more we realized that there are still some problems, such as there is a certain chance of graft bone resorption, necrosis, and residual surgical scarring on the foot. Based on this, we began to look for a better solution to the floating bunion. In the last three to four years, we have been doing hemimetacarpal bone graft reconstruction. With hemi-metacarpal bone graft reconstruction, the child’s foot will not be affected in any way, and the chance of bone resorption and necrosis will be greatly reduced, so the postoperative appearance and functional recovery are more satisfactory. From our follow-up, children of appropriate age have good width and length of metacarpal bone in the donor area after one or two years. This is the summary of our experience up to now.