The patient’s approach in congenital hand differences

Abstract

The patients with congenital hand differences need a special approach which is often complicated, as it involves the delicate handling of psychological issues, the crucial decision-making process concerning the treatment and its timing, as well as the careful prognosis of the evolution of the congenital difference with growth. Depending on the type of the congenital difference of the child, referral for genetic counseling is important, as is the meticulous clinical examination and consultation for the exclusion of concomitant anomalies of internal organs and life-threatening medical conditions. The physician has also to take in consideration the child’s adaptation to its disability and the alterations that any correction might cause at functionality’s expense, as well as the important issue of every function’s cortical representation that changes with age.