Hand Disorders

Making a Thumb: The Story of Pollicization

In 2007, the Charles E. Seay, Jr. Hand Center at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children released Making a Thumb: The Story of Pollicization. The film is an educational guide for hand surgeons and a resource for patient families in treating children with radial dysplasia, a condition in which the thumb is absent or underdeveloped.

The film educates hand surgeons about the anatomy, history and details of a successful operation and provides tools to help surgeons educate patient parents about thumb hypoplasia and the types of hand differences suitable for pollicization.

Pollicization
Through the pollicization procedure, the index finger is moved down on the hand into the thumb position and rotated into opposition to the other fingers.

Although the thumb is only one against the four fingers, it is functionally half of the hand. For a child with no other disabilities, the pollicized index finger can function as quickly and accurately as a thumb on a child born with all five digits.

For more information on pollicization and the Charles E. Seay, Jr. Hand Center, please call (214) 559-7842 or (800) 421-1121, ext. 7842.