Laterality and gender in
congenital upper limb deficiencies have been an area of debate in prosthetics
for many years. Images such as the ‘Limbless children, Moscow’ in 1993 by GerdLudwig in the National Geographic showed a line of 8 children, all with left
sided congenital upper limb deficiency.
Upper Limb Deficiencies |
The line consisted of 6
girls and two boys. Did this picture depict what has been considered by the
experts to be true when it comes to congenital upper limb deficiencies – It is
more common on the left side and more common in females? A bias towards more
left upper limb congenital absences has been commented on in a number of papers
in the late 90’s. There appeared to be no conclusive explanation for this
preponderance. A paper by Corballis and Morgan in 1979 suggested that the
developing embryo is under the influence of a left-right maturational gradient
which seems to favour earlier or more rapid development on the left than the
right.