“The parents showed me the child’s hand first. The child’s hand was similar to the syndactyly, but there were clearly “strangulation marks” on the hand. “So this child is a case of syndactyly caused by the harness syndrome. I then looked at the child’s legs. There was a deep “strangulation mark” on the child’s leg, but if the hand was not so obvious, the parents would not have thought the strangulation mark was strange. What is Banding Syndrome? Girdle band syndrome is a congenital circumferential narrowing band syndrome. The clinical manifestations of some of the girdle syndromes can be very similar to obesity, which is one of the reasons why many parents have difficulty distinguishing between them. These narrowing rings can sometimes be connected to other parts of the limb to cause some impact on the limb. In addition to skin and subcutaneous tissues, deeper constrictive rings can cause distal edema in the limb due to compression of deeper structures including veins and lymphatic vessels. Compression of arteries can cause impaired circulation in the distal limb; compression of nerve trunks can lead to dysfunction of the motor and sensory areas they innervate, and can seriously affect the development of the distal limb, resulting in significant reduction of the limb distal to the constricted ring, or in more severe cases, can lead to distal limb deformity, or even limb or finger deformity. Banding syndrome is often indistinguishable from obesity? What to do? Like this child, if the mother did not look at her hands, she would not have noticed that the child’s legs were also affected, because the child was small and it is often difficult to distinguish girdle syndrome from obesity. So how exactly should you tell the difference, you can try the following two methods. 1, you can poke the affected part of the folds to see if it is a whole circle? The folds can be reduced or disappear with the extension of the skin. This is because the banding syndrome is usually a full circle and does not diminish or disappear with skin extension. If it is not a whole ring, the fold disappears after pulling, it is generally caused by obesity. 2, you can press the affected skin to see whether it is soft or hard texture, if it is hard to touch, we should be alert to whether it is a girdle syndrome. As long as you master these methods, you will be able to basically tell the difference between the two. Is there a good outcome after surgery for girdle syndrome? Once you find out that your child has a bandage syndrome, you should take your child to the doctor as soon as possible. The band is like a “rope” and only when it is untied can the child’s arms and legs be completely released. This child was operated on shortly afterwards. This is an immediate post-operative photo of the child after the leg restraint was “untied”. Just recently this child came to the clinic for a follow-up and the leg scars are fading. He is now over three years old and is very active in the office, and has a good grip on his fingers after the “release”. Finally, parents should take their children to the doctor as soon as possible to avoid missing the best time. Children with banding syndrome should be scheduled for surgery as soon as possible, or in more severe cases, treated as an emergency.