Chinese Boy with 31 Fingers and Toes

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one.

Daily Mail ran a story recently on a Chinese boy, 6, who was born with 31 fingers and toes (15 fingers and 16 toes).  The story reporting on the child having surgery to correct the congenital anomaly.  (photo credit)

Polydactyly is a condition in which a person has more than five fingers per hand or five toes per foot.  Rarely is it more than one or two extra.  Polydactyly  occurs in approximately 1 out of every 1,000 births. Usually, only one hand is affected.

In the hand, the extra digit(s) may be located on the thumb side  (radial), the small finger side (ulnar), or in the middle (central). 

In the black population an extra finger on the little finger side (ulnar polydactyly) is most common. The most common congenital hand difference in the Asian population is an extra thumb (radial polydactyly).

Central polydactyly is inherited as an autosomal dominant condition with variable expression, meaning that it may be more or less severe from one generation to the next.

This young Chinese boy’s extra fingers were located centrally and the skin fused together (syndactyly).  This is much more rare than either radial or ulnar polydactyly.  (photos credit)