CONGENITAL DEFORMITY OF THE CARPUS ASSOCIATED WITH MALDEVELOPMENT OF CERTAIN THENAR MUSCLES

In 1943 Hodgson described a case of “ congenital retardation in development of the carpal navicular, first metacarpal and styloid process of the radius “ in association with wasting of the thenar muscles and recurrent sprains of the wrists. He was unable to find any previous description of a similar case and no other seems to have been recorded since 1944. The present paper describes two further patients with this condition, each of whom had additional congenital abnormalities. CASE REPORTS Case 1-A woman of thirty-one was admitted primarily for mitral valvotomy, and attention was drawn to the deformity of her hands by the finding that arterial pulsation at the wrists was greatly diminished. Both hands had a characteristic rather simian appearance (Fig. 1). There was marked radial deviation at the wrists, the movements of which were, however, painless and of normal range. The thumb was abnormally long and slender and resembled an extra finger, this appearance being accentuated by the almost total absence of the thenar muscular eminences. The power of abduction of the thumb (at right angles to the palm), of opposition of the thumb and of flexion of the first metacarpo-phalangeal joint was greatl