And now for something completely different.
Finger bones growing out of hip tissue forming a “pelvic digit” have been reported about 40-ish or so times. This is just as it sounds: bone imaging spots a “finger” (yes, with the bones and the joints) growing where it’s not supposed to. The condition is benign, and usually discovered incidentally. See, e.g., I. Van Breuseghem, MD, “The pelvic digit: a harmless ‘eleventh’ finger,” British Journal of Radiology (2006) 79, e106-e107 doi: 10.1259/bjr/17378249 (pictured above) and Keser, S., et al., “Pelvic digit: a case report with reference to the differential diagnosis of pelvis abnormalities,” Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 37:414-6 (2003)(Figure 2b, 2c, 2d):
Here’s an image from a finger growing out of a backbone in a patient who reported mild neck pain, Atalar, H. et al., “Phalanx-like osseous structure posterior to the cervical vertebrae: a hitherto unreported location for a rare anomaly,” Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 39:361-4 (2005)(Figure 2a. and b.):
You can thank me later for giving you something random to say to relatives this holiday season (like, to the family hypochondriac, “Have you been checked for a pelvic digit? Perhaps that’s causing your lower back pain.”). Or perhaps you could check the Thanksgiving turkey for a whatever the avian equivalent would be.
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