The troubles with pinkies

Adrian E. Flatt, MD, FRCS

In my personal series of 3006 children with congenital hand abnormalities, the most common defect was extra digits (528 cases), next was webbed fingers (429 cases), and third was abnormalities of the little finger (354 cases).

Any of the digits of a newborn may show deviations in alignment to the palm. However, it is the ulnar side of the hand, and usually the little finger, that most commonly shows skeletal and soft tissue changes. The fifth digit, affectionately known in North America as a pinkie (probably from the Dutch pinkje), is quite often in trouble in the sense that it may be permanently flexed at its proximal interphalangeal joint or may be deviated laterally to one side or the other at either interphalangeal joint.

Clinically, a bending or curvature of the finger in the plane of the palm is described as clinodactyly, a word derived from the Greek kliner, "to bend," and dactylos, "a finger." A flexion deformity at the proximal interphalangeal joint is known as camptodactyly from the Greek "bent finger."