The incidence and epidemiology of congenital upper limb anomalies: A totalpopulation study

An 11-year total population study of Western Australia examined the prevale nce and epidemiology of congenital upper limb anomalies. All anomalies were classified according to the International Federation of Surgical Societies of the Hand classification. We found the prevalence of babies born with up per limb anomalies to be 1 in 506. Forty-six percent of those affected had another nonhand congenital anomaly. Fifty-one percent had bilateral hand an omalies, and 17% had multiple different hand anomalies. The most common ano malies were failures of differentiation (35%), duplications (33%), and fail ures of formation (15%). Congenital upper limb anomalies were more common i n boys; preterm, postterm, and multiple births; and older mothers. No signi ficant differences in prevalence or frequency of anomalies were found betwe en whites and nonwhites, left and right sides, and in babies that survived and those who died shortly after birth. Copyright (C) 2001 by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.