Amniotic band sequence in child of thalidomide victim

EDITOR,—Andrew P Read1 and Richard W Smithells2 dismiss W G McBride's hypothesis that thalidomide might be a mutagen.3 After this correspondence was published we saw a child with limb reduction defects born to a thalidomide victim.

The baby had the following isolated anomalies of the left hand: almost complete absence of the third and fourth fingers, with necrotic tissue attached to the tip, while the second finger had a deep constriction ring at the proximal phalanx with a hypertrophic distal segment and hypoplastic nail. Annular constriction was also present between the first and second phalanxes of the thumb and was associated with a fibrous remnant; the fifth finger was …