Patterns of arterial distribution in the duplicated thumb

The arterial blood supply of the duplicated thumb was studied in 42 hands using the angiography technique. The developing factor of the duplicated thumb also may hinder the developing process of the limb artery, especially in the early stage when the median artery develops. In 73.8 percent of duplicated thumbs, two digital arteries were present, and 96.8 percent of them had one digital artery in each member. Simple ablation of the supernumerary digit leaves the thumb with a single end-arterial blood supply. The developmental mechanism of the duplicated thumb may depend not on duplication of the limb bud, but on splitting of the limb mesenchyme. The group of type VII of Wassel's classification was different from the other types in terms of origin of the digital artery distributing blood to the duplicated thumb.