Finger Lengthening by Callotasis

Chung, Duke Whan; Han, Jung Soo; Lee, Yong Girl; Lee, Chun Woo; Kim, Sung Tae

Abstract

Indications for bone lengthening in the hand are less common than for the lower extremity. From 1991 to 1993 authors had performed nine hand bone lengthenings in the eight patients, based on callotasis and chondrodiastasis, Average age at the time of surgery was 18 years old(from 4 to 31 years old). Diagnoses included traumatic amputations in 7 cases and congenital syndactyly of both hand with hypoplastic digits in 2 cases. Sites of lengthening were metacarpal bone in 7 cases, phalangeal bone in 2 cases. Eight of 9 lengthening procedures resulted in complete consolidation of the bone gap after the single stage procedure. In one case secondary bone graft was required for the bone defect. Average consolidation period was 16 weeks(from 10 weeks to 22 weeks). Average gained length was 14.6mm (from 6 to 30mm) and average percent of gained digital bone length was 48%. There were minimal complications including marginal necrosis of skin, numbness and bone tip exposure and were responsed to conservative manage, but stump revision for bone tip exposure was performed in one case. In all cases followed to completion and for 1 to 3 years postoperatively, there was improvement of function with key pinch. The callotasis lengthening is one of the useful method of short hand bone lengthening to improve function of hand and cosmetic demand.