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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
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Inherited Disorders and Birth Defects |
Missing hand defect10/22/2008 |
A friend was born without a hand. He has a partial palm with tiny fingers and thumb. What would cause is and is this hereditary?
What you describe sounds most likely to be a random birth defect. 3-5 % of all babies born each year are born with some type of birth defect. Most isolated birth defects, situations where there are no other abnormalities present, usually are not inherited but are due to a combination of genes and environmental influences during development.
If what you describe is the only problem, there could be a number of different reasons for what caused it. While a cause for such birth defects might be identified, such as some type of environmental exposure during fetal development, most of the time no cause is ever found.
If a person has other problems (sometimes very subtle) in addition to the abnormality of the hand, then it could be genetic and potentially something that could be passed on to children.
If your friend has questions, I would recommend that he or she talk to a geneticist or genetic counselor about the defect. By examining the hand, they may be able to be more specific about a cause. Your friend can locate a genetics center near you at the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ Resource Center website listed below.
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Anne Matthews, RN, PhD Associate Professor of Genetics School of Medicine Case Western Reserve University |
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