Tag: Congenital absence

According to the National Institutes of Health, Poland syndrome is a rare congenital disorder affecting approximately 1 in 20,000 newborns. This condition is the primary answer to the question: can you be born without a pectoral muscle?, as it involves the absence or underdevelopment of the chest wall muscles on one side of the body.

Though exceedingly rare, affecting as few as 17 in one million people, it is medically possible to be born without certain ligaments. While the body relies on these fibrous tissues for joint stability and movement, some individuals have a congenital absence of ligaments. So, can you have no ligaments? The answer is yes, though it is the exception and not the rule.