[Arterial patterns in congenital deformities of the hand (author's transl)]

Etiology of congenital deformities of the hand is still unknown in most cases. But anomalous development of arteries has been suspected to play a role in faulty development of the hands. Senior (1926) and Singer (1933) have reported arterial anomalies in the developmental stage of these vessels. Between 1968 and 1978, 367 patients with 453 congenital deformities of the hand visited the hand service of Kyoto University Hospital. These hand anomalies were classified according to Swanson's classification. Angiography was performed on 74 hands of 70 patients in this series, and attempts were made to correlate these with the types of the deformities. From the standpoint of embryological development of arteries, it is concluded that failure of formation of parts (arrest of development), failure of differentiation (separation) of parts and duplication are generated in the same stage from 48 days postovulatory (18 mm embryo), overgrowth (gigantism) of the hand and congenital constriction band syndrome are generated after 52 days postovulatory (23 mm embryo). Generalized skeletal anomalies are considered to be generated in the various developmental stages depending on the each malformed hands. Developmental stage of malformed hands with generalized skeletal abnormalities is discussed with special reference to the embryological development of other anomalies.