A Case of Rudimentary Polydactyly: Is It Truly Related to Polydactyly? / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

Rudimentary polydactyly is a congenital anomaly of the hand clinically ranging from a small wart-like tumor to a pedunculated structure near the thumb or little finger. The histology reveals a marked neural proliferation, dilated blood vessels, and some Meissner corpuscles in the dermis. The etiology is unknown and there are a few theories. First, Hare believed that it represented a vestigial form of supernumerary finger, and termed it rudimentary polydactyly. Since then, Shapiro et al. has argued that rudimentary polydactyly is an amputation neuroma after finding histological similarity between acquired traumatic neuroma and rudimentary polydactyly. Recently Brehmer- Andersson et al. asserted that rudimentary polydactyly is a neuroma that can arise in any area containing Meissner corpuscles after observing a penile lesion with similar histology as rudimentary polydactyly. We report a case of rudimentary polydactyly characteristically not showing any prominent Meissner corpuscles. With this case, we provide support for the theory of Shapiro et al.