- Discussion:
- total absence of the thumb may be an isolated anomaly, but it is often associated with some other congenital malformation;
- absent thumb may be inherited as autosomal dominant or may be sporadic;
- absent thumb is frequently observed in Holt-Oram syndrome, Fanconi's anemia, and ring D chromosome abnormalities;
- absent radius is almost always associated with an absent thumb, except in thrombocytopenia radial aplasia (Fanconi's syndrome), where
thumb is present even when the radius is absent; (see
radial club hand);
- Radiographs: 
- Treatment:
- treatment in most cases of absent thumb is to perform pollicization of the index finger;
- this will have the most significant effect on handling large objects;
- patients with an isolated hypoplasia of the thumb tend to do better with pollicization than do patients with associated radial aplasia;
Index finger pollicization for a congenitally absent or nonfunctioning thumb.
Pollicization of the index finger for reconstruction of the congenitally hypoplastic or absent thumb.
Pollicization of the index finger. Method and results in aplasia and hypoplasia of the thumb.
D Buck-Gramcko. JBJS Vol 53-A. 1971. p 1605-1617.
Pollicisation of the index finger. A 27 year follow up study.
DI Clark et al. JBJS. Vol 80-B. No 4. July 1998. p 631.
