dysmelia dysmelia dysmelia (from the greek dys (δυσ-), "bad" + mélos (μέλος), "limb" + english suffix -ia) is a congenital disorder of a limb resulting from a disturbance in embryonic development. piglet with dipygus at ukrainian national chernobyl museum in kyiv types syndactyly of the second and third toes dysmelia can refer to missing (aplasia) limbs: amelia, oligodactyly, congenital amputation e.g. tibial or radial aplasia malformation of limbs: shortening (micromelia, rhizomelia or mesomelia), ectrodactyly, phocomelia, meromelia, syndactyly, brachydactyly, club foot too many limbs: polymelia, polydactyly, polysyndactyly others: tetraamelia, hemimelia, symbrachydactyly bilateral polydactyly with short fingers in ellis–van creveld syndrome patient occurrence rate birth defects involving limbs occur in 1 per 1000. causes dysmelia can be caused by inheritance of abnormal genes, e.g. polydactyly, ectrodactyly or brachydactyly, symptoms of deformed limbs then often occur in combination with other symptoms (syndromes) external causes during pregnancy (thus not inherited), e.g. via amniotic band syndrome teratogenic drugs (e.g. thalidomide, which causes phocomelia) or environmental chemicals ionizing radiation (nuclear weapons, radioiodine, radiation therapy) infections metabolic imbalance syndromes with dysmelia 2p15-16.1 microdeletion syndrome achard syndrome ackerman syndrome acrocallosal syndrome acropectoral syndrome adams–oliver syndrome aglossia adactylia amniotic band syndrome apert syndrome autosomal recessive robinow syndrome basel–vanagaite–sirota syndrome (microlissencephaly-micromelia syndrome) campomelic dysplasia cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome catel–manzke syndrome cenani–lenz syndrome corneodermatoosseous syndrome diploid triploid mosaic ectrodactyly–ectodermal dysplasia–cleft syndrome edwards syndrome ellis–van creveld syndrome fibular dimelia diplopodia syndrome (leg duplication mirror foot syndrome) greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome haas syndrome hanhart syndrome holt–oram syndrome humeroradial synostosis johnson–munson syndrome joubert syndrome mckusick–kaufman syndrome mermaid syndrome mesomelia-synostoses syndrome (8q13 microdeletion syndrome) microgastria myhre syndrome nager acrofacial dysostosis neu–laxova syndrome patau syndrome pfeiffer syndrome poland syndrome radial aplasia roberts sc-phocomelia syndrome (phocomelia syndrome) rubinstein–taybi syndrome silver–russell syndrome split-hand split-foot malformation (shfm) tar syndrome (thrombocytopenia with absent radius) tetra-amelia syndrome ulbright–hodes syndrome vacterl association wallis–zieff–goldblatt syndrome