Congenital syndactyly: a retrospective study of 18 cases at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology of the Habib Bourguiba University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract

Congenital syndactylies are frequent congenital malformations of the hand. They can be an isolated finding or they can be found in association with other polymalformative syndromes. Several surgical techniques used to treat them have been described in the literature. The most used is the dorsal commissural omega-flap technique. We here report a study of 18 patients with congenital syndactyly, with multiple involvement in several cases, whose data were collected at the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology of Sfax (Tunisia). All patients were operated using the dorsal commissural omega-flap technique. We operated 42 commissures in 18 patients. The average age of patients was 7 years. Only 3 patients had syndromic forms. Six of these patients were operated in two stages. For scar quality, mean OSAS score was 11.47 (11.35 for simple types and 12 for complex types). All patients with complex types had long-term complications (100%). Six patients with simple types out of 14 had complications (42.85%). The management of congenital syndactylies is surgical. It is important to provide parents with accurate information on the essential role of follow-up appointments in order to avoid complications in the short and the long term.