Acheiropodia

Acheiropodia, also called Horn-Kolb syndrome, is a genetic condition affecting limb development. Babies are born with shortened arms and legs and with no hands or feet on either side of the body, lacking the end of the upper arm bone, much of the shin bone, the forearm bones, the fibula and all of the hand and foot bones. It was first described in Brazil in 1929, and it is found almost exclusively there, although cases have been reported in Turkey, Argentina, Ireland and the United States. The condition is autosomal recessive, caused by a change in the C7orf2 gene that removes a needed protein-coding segment, so that both copies of the gene must be altered for it to appear. An estimated three people in every ten million are affected.