title: Surgical results from treating children with syndactyly through the collective effort system at "SOS Hand Recife" between 2005 and 2009.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to evaluate the results from and parents' satisfaction with treatment for children with syndactyly who were operated at the "SOS Hand Recife" hospital between 2005 and 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  data for assessing the results were gathered from the patients' medical files. The subjective scores, which were ascertained prospectively, were as follows: greater than or equal to 9, good result; between 6 and 8, fair result; less than 6, poor result. The results were analyzed statistically. This study was approved by the institution's ethics committee.
  
  
  RESULTS
  among the 35 cases, 21 (60%) consisted of simple syndactyly and 14 (40%) were complex; 22 (62.8%) were boys and 13 (37.1%) were girls. The complex cases were predominantly among males. The main complications were infection (11.4%), bleeding (11.4%) and pain (8.6%). There were more complications in the complex cases (42.8%) than in the simple cases (33.3%). The mean scores from the parents' subjective evaluations were as follows: 7.6 for esthetics (7.7 in simple cases and 7.3 in complex cases; 8.2 for function (8.6 in simple cases and 7.6 in complex cases); 8.3 for the parents' general satisfaction level (8.6 in simple cases and 8.0 in complex cases); and 85.7% of the parents would recommend the surgery to others while 14.5% would not. A strong association was observed between the specialist's objective assessment and the scores given by the parents (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the surgical results from treating syndactyly presented differences between the simple and complex types, even though the parents' esthetic evaluations and satisfaction were similar.
authors.affiliation: Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil ; Cirurgia da Mão, Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mauri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cortez
authors.affiliation: Cirurgia da Mão, Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Veríssimo
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Fernandes Júnior
authors.affiliation: Cirurgia da Mão, Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rui Ferreira
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Clinique Jouvenet, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.affiliation: Clinique Jouvenet, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Valenti
authors.affiliation: Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carlos Teixeira
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.affiliation: Cirurgia da Mão, Hospital SOS Mão Recife, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: André Almeida Pinheiro
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Teles
keywords: Children; Congenital hand deformities; Surgical flaps; Syndactyly