A Simple Alternative Treatment for Syndactyly of the Toe

Toe syndactyly is a common congenital malformation affecting approximately 1 in 2000 people and can cause significant emotional and psychological distress for the patient. We report a case of a 41-year-old female who was concerned about the aesthetic appearance of her bilateral second and third toe with incomplete, simple syndactyly and had requested surgical correction. A number of operative techniques have been described in the orthopedic and plastic surgery data, with no one technique proving superior. We used medical tattooing to create the appearance of a complete interdigital cleft. This low-risk, and low-cost procedure resulted in a satisfactory outcome for the patient. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case using this technique, which we propose as a simple alternative to surgical correction of toe syndactyly.