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CC BY-NC 4.0 · Arch Plast Surg 2016; 43(06): 559-563
DOI: 10.5999/aps.2016.43.6.559
Original Article

Foot Syndactyly: A Clinical and Demographic Analysis

Jong Ho Kim
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
,
Byung Jun Kim
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
,
Sung Tack Kwon
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
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Background Syndactyly of the foot is the second most common congenital foot anomaly. In East Asia, however, no large case study has been reported regarding the clinical features of isolated foot syndactyly. In this study, we report a review of 118 patients during the last 25 years.

Methods We conducted a chart review of patients who underwent surgical correction for foot syndactyly between January 1990 and December 2014. Operations were performed with a dorsal triangular flap and a full-thickness skin graft. The demographics of included patients and their clinical features were evaluated. Surgical outcomes and complications were analyzed.

Results Among 118 patients with 194 webs (155 feet), 111 patients showed nonsyndromic cases and 7 patients showed syndromic cases. In 80 unilateral cases (72.1%), the second web was the most frequently involved (37.5%), followed by the fourth (30%), the first (15%), the third (15%), the first and second in combination (1.3%), and the second and third in combination (1.3%). Among 31 bilateral cases, 2 cases were asymmetric. Among the remaining 29 symmetric bilateral cases, the second web was the most frequently involved (45.2%), followed by the first (22.6%), and the fourth (6.5%). No specific postoperative complications were observed, except in the case of 1 patient (0.51%) who required a secondary operation to correct web creep.

Conclusions This retrospective clinical study of 118 patients with both unilateral and bilateral foot syndactyly revealed that the second web was the most frequently involved. In addition, complete division and tension-free wound closure with a full-thickness skin graft of sufficient size showed good postoperative results.

Keywords

Syndactyly - Foot deformities, congenital - Postoperative complications

The authors thank Kyu-Young Kim for the medical illustrations.




Publication History

Received: 30 May 2016

Accepted: 12 October 2016

Article published online:
20 April 2022

© 2016. The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, permitting unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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