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UVA Surgeon Gives Boy a New Grip on Life | UVA Today

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UVA Surgeon Gives Boy a New Grip on Life | UVA Today

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Although Connor Woodle has a genetic disorder that resulted in him being born without thumbs, the boy now has all the dexterity he needs thanks to Dr. Bobby Chhabra, co-founder of the University of Virginia Hand Center, who created thumbs for Connor over the course of two operations.

"I can't tell you how amazing it is to be watching Connor do even the simplest things," said his dad, Jason Woodle. "A fanatic about Cheerios, Connor can pick them up between his new thumb and forefinger with the best of them."

Two weeks after Connor was born, Jason and his wife, Joan, made their first visit to the U.Va. Hand Center. "I can't tell you how reassuring it was for two new, very scared parents to meet someone like Dr. Chhabra, who had actually helped children like Connor before," Jason Woodle said. "For us, having someone in Charlottesville with this kind of expertise was a godsend."

The formal name for the procedure Chhabra performed is digit pollicization. An extremely complex procedure, it entails detaching the index finger with its nerves and blood vessels, rotating and repositioning it to the position of a normal thumb and attaching the muscles and tendons to provide proper function. It is best done between the ages of 1 and 2 so that the child's brain maps the new digit as a thumb rather than a displaced index finger.

"In my view, pollicization is one of the most gratifying operations you can ever do," said Chhabra, who chairs U.Va.'s Department of Orthopedic Surgery. "In fact, it's one of the main reasons I went into hand surgery. It can improve a child's quality of life dramatically."

Chhabra came to U.Va. in 2002 to help create a Hand Center capable of performing sophisticated procedures for congenital hand differences, while also treating the full spectrum of disorders, from carpal tunnel syndrome to arthritis to complex fractures.

"Over the last decade, we've built a center that's the equal of some of the best in the nation, with an expert, multidisciplinary team and wonderful facilities," he said. "Our goal is to provide the most comprehensive scope of care in a single location. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished."

The Woodles are certainly appreciative of all that Chhabra and the U.Va. Hand Center team has done for them - and so, in his way, is Connor. "Connor doesn't let many people pick him up and put him on their laps, but Connor really trusts Dr. Chhabra," Jason Woodle said. "And so do we."

- By Charlie Feigenoff

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UVA Surgeon Gives Boy a New Grip on Life

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Although Connor Woodle has a genetic disorder that resulted in him being born without thumbs, the boy now has all the dexterity he needs thanks to Dr. Bobby Chhabra, co-founder of the University of Virginia Hand Center , who created thumbs for Connor over the course of two operations.

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Doctors transform the hands of boy born without thumbs - TODAY.com

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Doctors transform the hands of boy born without thumbs - TODAY.com

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The moment Jason Woodle first saw his newborn son in the delivery room, his immediate gut reaction was to count the boy's fingers and toes. The quick scan revealed something unusual.

"I looked at the attending pediatrician and I said, I think we have some missing digits here," Woodle, who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, told TODAY. "It was quite a surprise for everyone in the room... it was actually quite unnerving."

Today

Baby Connor was born in 2012 without his thumbs, a rare condition called thumb aplasia that affects about one out of every 100,000 infants. The exact cause is a mystery.

While a missing finger or two might not sound like a big deal in the full spectrum of birth defects, Woodle and his wife worried about what it would mean for Connor's future.

"My first thoughts were: How is he going to be able to function in the world? Everything from five-fingered gloves to being able to reel in a fishing rod to being able to play a video game," he said. "Even something as simple as hitting a space bar on a keyboard - we take our thumbs for granted."

Indeed, the opposable thumb is a marvel of anatomical design, allowing us to grasp and hold things, and giving us the ability to pinch and grip. Try opening a bottle or tying your shoes without it and you quickly realize its worth.

As he grew, Connor learned to pick up objects between his index and middle finger, crab-like, Woodle said.

People can obviously survive without thumbs, but even simple tasks become very challenging, said Dr. Bobby Chhabra, an orthopedic surgeon and co-founder of the University of Virginia Hand Center. Certain genetic disorders can cause deformities in the hands of a fetus, which develop in the first two months of a pregnancy, he said.

"It's very unusual to have a child born without both thumbs and still have four, fully-functioning normal other fingers," Chhabra noted about Connor's case.

Today

So the doctor set out to create thumbs from the boy's index fingers using a procedure called digit pollicization. Each complex, multi-hour surgery - one per hand - involved rotating Connor's index finger, shortening it, placing it where the thumb would normally be and then reconnecting the finger's blood vessels and nerves.

Chhabra also had to make sure the digit would be able to grow normally, so that when Connor was an adult, he wouldn't be stuck with a baby-sized thumb.

"It's an incredibly elegant operation," Chhabra said. "This is one of the more complex operations that I do because a child's hand is very small. The structures, blood vessels, nerves - everything is miniscule."

Connor was 1 when the first surgery took place last year - the optimum age for digit pollicization because that's when children are learning fine motor skills and have an incredible ability to adapt, Chhabra said.

If an adult were to undergo the same procedure, he would have a hard time learning how to use his new thumb because the mature brain doesn't have the same adaptability, Chhabra added.

Woodle still remembers the moment he first saw his son's brand new thumb.

"I was in tears. It was a big, big thing for me to be able to see that," Woodle said. "For him, too. For his first hand, when we took the cast off he held his hand up and he kind of stared at his hand."

Today

With both surgeries complete, the boy, who is now 2 1/2, is "doing fantastic," Chhabra said. He can pick up tiny things, lift heavy objects, like a sippy cup filled with milk, and use crayons.

The surgeries have left Connor with three fingers and a thumb on each hand, though many people don't notice he's missing a finger, Chhabra said.

"In these children, the hope is to provide them a full life and the ability to do anything that any other child can do," he noted. "The long-term outlook is very good."

Follow A. Pawlowski on Google+ and Twitter.

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Doctors transform the hands of boy born without thumbs

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The moment Jason Woodle first saw his newborn son in the delivery room, his immediate gut reaction was to count the boy's fingers and toes. The quick scan revealed something unusual."I looked at the attending pediatrician and I said, I think we have some missing digits here," Woodle, who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, told TODAY.

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Appointments:

Chair, Department of Orthopaedics, University of Virginia

Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

David A. Harrison Distinguished Educator

Division Head, Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery

Hand and Upper Extremity Consultant, University of Virginia Athletics

Professor of Plastic Surgery

Hand and Upper Extremity Consultant, UVa Athletics

Awards:

David Harrison Distinguished Educator Award, the most prestigious teaching award at the UVA School of Medicine, 2016

Inducted into the Raven Society, the most prestigious honorary society at the University of Virginia, 2014

Appointed Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, 2013

President, Virginia Orthopaedic Society, 2010-2011

Charles W. Miller Chief Resident Teaching Award, University of Virginia, Department of Orthopaedics, 2010

Appointed to the Executive Council of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Board Member At Large, September 2009 (3-year term)

Appointed Charles J. Frankel Endowed Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, June 2009

Induction into the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA), June 2008

Selected as a Consultant to the Surgery of the Hand Certification and Recertification Examinations, May 2008

Selected as the Virginia State Representative for the Congressional National Orthopaedic Leadership Delegation, Washington DC, 2008

Selected for the American Society of Surgery of the Hand Young Leaders Program, 2008

Selected for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery Leadership Fellows Program, 2008

"Best Doctors in America" Award, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Recipient of the University of Virginia Master Educator Award, 2007

Selected by the Dean of the University of Virginia to participate in the Leadership in Academic Medicine Symposium, 2007

Recipient of the University of Virginia School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2006

Inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Educators, 2006

Charles W. Miller Chief Resident Teaching Award, University of Virginia, Department of Orthopaedics, 2006

Best Lecturer Award, Miller Orthopaedic Board Review Course, 2006

Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, Career Development Award, 2006

Robert Pruner Resident Teaching Award, University of Virginia, Department of Orthopaedics, 2004

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Appointments: Chair, Department of Orthopaedics, University of Virginia Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery David A.