Hong Hong, a three month old baby with an extreme instance of polydactyl, has 31 digits. The condition in which children are born with an additional set of fingers and toes is rather common. Babies parents who are from the Chinese province of Hunan are currently gathering funds for his surgery.
In a shocking turn of events, a kid was born with an abnormal number of fingers and toes, despite the fact that there were no indicators of his malformations on prenatal scans. According to his parents, the three month old baby, who goes by the name Hong Hong, has 15 fingers and 16 toes on each hand, according to People’s Daily Online.
He also has two palms on each end with no thumbs, which is quite incredible because specialists at their local hospital in Hunan, central China, have told him that the surgery will be extremely difficult for their son. His parents are desperate to obtain medical therapy for him. In their statement, the family claims that they had many prenatal scans and were informed that their baby was normal. Hong Kong suffers from a severe form of polydactyl. It’s estimated that around one in every 10 children is born with an additional finger or toe.
Due to this medical issue, however, having that many extra digits is highly uncommon. Polandactyl is a condition that affects both the hands and feet of Hong Kong’s mother, according to the report. Due to her concern that she would pass it on to her child, she had a number of investigations at hospitals in Shenzhen in Southern China. In fact, she went to the Fuchsian District Maternity Hospital in Shenzhen to have a four dimensional ultrasound done. While she was halfway through her pregnancy, she was informed once more that the infant did not have any defects.
But the couple, who reside in Hunan, were horrified to realize that their son’s polydactyl is even more severe than that of his mother. Both of Hong Kong’s feet have eight toes, while one of his hands has eight fingers and the other seven. Professor Liu Hong of Hunan Provincial Peoples Hospital for Pediatric Orthopedics, has informed Hong Kong’s father, Zao Shenlin, that the surgery will be extremely difficult to do.
Despite the fact that the baby is still too young for anesthesia he’ll need to have surgery between six months and a year before the bones have time to solidify. Unfortunately for the destitute family, these surgeries are anticipated to cost in the hundreds of thousands of yuan, tens of thousands of pounds too expensive for them to endure.
Now the three month old boys parents are desperately attempting to find money to afford the treatment for their kid. Pydactyl is a medical term used to describe the condition that the small baby has. What is the definition of polydactyl? Polydactyl is when a baby is born with an additional finger on the hand or an extra toe on the foot. It can occur on either one or both hands or feet, or on both hands and both feet.
Polydactyl is most commonly found on the Pinky finger side of the hand or the little toe side of the foot, respectively. Called postaxial, it occurs on the thumb or big toe side of the foot less frequently pre axial. Rarely, it might be central or in the center of the hand or foot. The extra digit is usually smaller than the other fingers or toes. What is the prevalence of polydactyl?
It’s one of the most frequent congenital limb deformities and is observed in around one in every 10 live births, explains Anthony Curry, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio. Polydactyl can manifest itself in a variety of ways at varying degrees of severity.
Corey says that polydactyl can manifest itself as a little bump of soft tissue, a partially formed digit with some underlying bone, or a completely formed and functional extra finger or toe, and that it can manifest itself on both hands or both feet at the same time. In certain cases, the most common type of polydactyl in the hands is duplication of the little fingers, says Kristen David, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The most common type of polydactyl in the hands is duplication of the small fingers.
A second type of polydactyl in the hands, according to David, is the presence of an additional thumb. In most cases, duplication of the index finger and ring fingers occur in conjunction with other upper limb malformations, according to the experts. What is the cause of polydactyl? David explains that the reason my son, nephew, and sister in law all had additional digits linked to their Pinky fingers is because that sort of polydactyl tends to run in families, but duplicate thumbs do not. These nubbins are also more common in people of African American origin, explains Quarry.
Almost 14 in 1000 African Americans and babies will have a supernumerary digit. My sisterinlaw is African American, and my son and nephew are also mixed, so it seems that this would be the case. Corey claims that polydactyl can be a component of multiple bigger syndromes, including Aperture syndrome, Carpenter syndrome, and a slew of others. There are over 300 such probable syndromes in total, according to Cali. But because the nubbin was my son’s only septum, our doctors were unconcerned and we weren’t referred for further testing.
Can you see polydactyl on an ultrasound? However, while it is technically possible to detect polydactyl on an ultrasound, it’s uncommon to detect it before birth, which might result in expected deliveries like mine. The treatment for polydactyl is not known at this time. The two primary treatment choices are to have the additional digits surgically removed or to leave them in their natural state. Our midwife informed us that nubbin fingers, like my sons, could simply be surgically removed or tied off like a skin tag.
You may see this characterized as a ligation with a piece of suture or thread. But I pondered, was that our choice to make as someone who is firmly anti circumcision and even against ear piercing until a child is old enough to decide for themselves, a huge part of me wanted to just leave his finger alone until he could make the decision for himself. But the practical side of me looked at the tiny amount of skin attached to his extra finger and saw a hazard.
I worked at a daycare for many years and had witnessed his elder brother’s active behavior as a newborn and toddler, which made me concerned that as soon as he was mobile and getting into everything, this dangling bit of skin would become entangled in something and pulled off. We concluded that it was best to have it removed intentionally by specialists rather than accidentally, and booked a consultation with a plastic surgeon, who then scheduled us for day surgery.
What is the optimal age for polydactyl surgery? Doing this basic procedure in the first few months of life is optimal, our doctors advised us. It’s when babies are less wiggly and can still be held for a local numbing anesthesia instead of receiving general anesthesia. My infant did not get this memo, though. At three months old he had the power of Hulk, and my attempts to distract him by nursing him during the surgery were ineffective.
Though he despised being restrained for the five minute duration of the surgery, it was quick and easy. They gave him a needle by far the worst part for both of us, and then rapidly removed the additional digit with a knife and gave them a few stitches, then bandaged him up. Our surgeon did not recommend the tying off option with sutures, because sometimes bumps might be left behind that may become unpleasant with time.
The use of a scalpel, on the other hand, produces a smooth contour of the hand and a flat scar. According to David, it took some creative thinking on my part to keep a bandage dry on the hand of a teething baby for several weeks, but my son’s healing was relatively Swift and uneventful overall.
I used a few layers of Bobby socks over his fist, giving him the appearance of a pint sized boxer. But it worked. He’s now six years old, and he’s rather proud of his small scar, which serves as a reminder to his peers that he was once an eleven fingered wonder. Some polydactyl operations are more difficult than others. While nub and removal is a straightforward, digits that involve bone joints and connective tissue require more substantial surgery.
This is especially true when it comes to the thumb, which impacts usefulness as well as appearance. The idea is to remove the least functional component and to recreate the remaining parts, explains Corey. Further, functional components from each digit can be joined to form a new digit that’s distinct from the others. David and Corey concur that this more sophisticated surgery is often performed when the child is around one year of age and that the outcomes are generally extremely favorable. Is it possible to refuse surgery?
In some cases when the function of the additional digit is not compromised, allowing it to remain at least until the child is old enough to make the decision to have it removed is also an option worth considering. Michael Six Muldoon, a skilled magician from Queens, New York, informed me that the small additional finger that protrudes from his Pinky is one of his favorite parts of his body.
He’s even established his illustrious career of magic on the foundation of it. Muldoon’s finger, in contrast to my son’s finger, has bone and is therefore more securely attached. Muldoon is grateful to his mother who declined surgery because she believed it should be up to him to decide.