complications
Last reviewed 01/2018
The complications of the surgical treatment of clinodactyly are more frequent with increasing severity of initial deformity. Any bone procedure can be associated with adhesions to the surrounding tendons. Procedures which shorten the digit substantially can produce an extensor lag as the extrinsic extensor apparatus fails to take up the slack of the reduced distance to its insertion. Damage to the horizontal portion of the epiphysis in a epiphyseolysis procedure can result in arrested growth or further abnormal deviation with time. Wedge osteotomies are difficult to execute and a digit may not be perfectly aligned along its long axis postoperatively.