Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Short palm
HP:0004279
What it means
Short palm.
This term refers to a developmental finding resulting in short palms. This term is reserved for individuals with shortening of all four metacarpals 2-5. Individuals with fewer than four shortened metacarpals (in a eudactylous hand, the metacarpals of F2-5) should be coded as Metacarpal, short. See the entry for Hand, small for a discussion of this finding. "Short hand" should not be used as it is a bundle of two readily separable terms, Fingers, short (which, as noted above, can itself be a bundled term) and Palm, short.
Rare diseases that can present with this70
Very common80–99%
30- Aarskog-Scott syndrome
- Acrocapitofemoral dysplasia
- Acrofacial dysostosis, Catania type
- Acromicric dysplasia
- Atypical Werner syndrome
- Autosomal dominant Robinow syndrome
- Cardiospondylocarpofacial syndrome
- Carpenter syndrome
- Cartilage-hair hypoplasia
- Corneodermatoosseous syndrome
- Craniosynostosis-hydrocephalus-Arnold-Chiari malformation type I-radioulnar synostosis syndrome
- Genitopatellar syndrome
- Infantile systemic hyalinosis
- Lenz-Majewski hyperostotic dysplasia
- Mesoaxial synostotic syndactyly with phalangeal reduction
- Microbrachycephaly-ptosis-cleft lip syndrome
- Microcephalic osteodysplastic dysplasia, Saul-Wilson type
- Microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism types I and III
- Multiple synostoses syndrome
- Myhre syndrome
- Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome
- Odontochondrodysplasia
- Platyspondylic dysplasia, Torrance type
- Radio-renal syndrome
- Short rib-polydactyly syndrome, Verma-Naumoff type
- Spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, Irapa type
- Spondylometaphyseal dysplasia, Sedaghatian type
- Velo-facial-skeletal syndrome
- X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia, Chassaing-Lacombe type
- X-linked intellectual disability, Cabezas type
Common30–79%
24- 19p13.12microdeletion syndrome
- 20q11.2microduplication syndrome
- 2q23.1microdeletion syndrome
- 2q37microdeletion syndrome
- 4q21microdeletion syndrome
- Achondrogenesis type 1A
- CHIME syndrome
- Dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Eiken syndrome
- Geleophysic dysplasia
- Grange syndrome
- Growth delay due to insulin-like growth factor I resistance
- Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome
- Metaphyseal dysostosis-intellectual disability-conductive deafness syndrome
- Muenke syndrome
- Occipital horn syndrome
- Oculoectodermal syndrome
- Otopalatodigital syndrome type 1
- Otopalatodigital syndrome type 2
- Pfeiffer syndrome type 1
- Progressive spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia-short stature-short fourth metatarsals-intellectual disability syndrome
- Spondylometaphyseal dysplasia, A4 type
- Syndactyly type 2
- Visceral neuropathy-brain anomalies-facial dysmorphism-developmental delay syndrome
Sometimes5–29%
15- 14q22q23microdeletion syndrome
- 16p11.2p12.2microdeletion syndrome
- 2q31.1microdeletion syndrome
- Autosomal dominant omodysplasia
- Deafness-small bowel diverticulosis-neuropathy syndrome
- Distal 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome
- Distal deletion 6p syndrome
- Facial dysmorphism-developmental delay-behavioral abnormalities syndrome due to WAC point mutation
and 7 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Hypoplastic hands · Short hands · Short palms
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.