leg lengthening procedure

[traceywilliamson]

My son has been diagnosed with Perthes for a year and he had a femoral osteotomy in March of last year. Although the doctor seems to feel that his prognosis is good and the hip is healing well, the surgery caused an additional leg length discrepancy that causes a limp that is bothersome. Just wondering if anyone on this board has had any experience with any procedures to get the legs back to the same length.

[Donna Brown]

Hi Tracey

The simplest way to counter-act the LLD (leg length discrepancy) is for the growth plate in the knee of the good leg to be stopped at the appropriate time, so that the perthes leg can catch up and the difference in length will be almost non-existent. This is usually at the most, an overnight stay in hospital and a very quick (relatively) procedure.

The only alternative to this is the lengthen the perthes leg, which requires the femur to be broken in two places (I think its two) and an external fixator used to open up the gap where the bone is broken, so that new bone forms in this gap, effectively lengthening the leg. This is a very involved procedure and although it does ensure that your child is no shorter than they should be, the difference in height that perthes makes, is usually around 1-2 inches at the most and the seriousness and length of recovery of the lengthening, definitely need to be weighed carefully against the advantage that amount of height will make.

My daughter had an external fixator for perthes - its used to open the hip joint up and allow the femoral head to rest and recover - and have to say that as much as I totally support anyone who chooses this treatment, its one that you don't do lightly. Its hard work for the child and family, with pin-site cares, allowing for the fixator whenever the child moves and the extra weight of it etc. If I had to do it again, I would definitely choose this option, as she also had osteotomies the previous year, but at least with the fixator used for perthes, its only for four months, unlike for leg lengthening.

Hope that helps

Donna

[emmacoward]

Hey. I'm Emma and I'm 19 years old. I have leg length discrepency as a result of Perthes. My left leg is mildly shorter than the right. It was noticed a while back by my Consultant and the hopsital provided me with an internal block to put in left shoes. I wore them for a while but it often made shoes uncomfortable and wearing high heels was nearly impossible; my foot would always slip out. I also found that it would give me severe back pain, as my spine had curved from when I had been in the wheelchair and walked with the discrepency as a child. The blocks were aligning the legs but at the cost of a bad back. I told my consultant and have not wore the soles/blocks ever since. They don't help the hip I don't think, it's more just for cosmetics I believe. Although this could just be from my experience. I don't really notice the difference in the lengths of my legs anymore, and I very much doubt other people notice it either, it is not that big. The only thing I find that sets me out differently is that standing 'normally' is quite uncomfortable and so I usually curly my left leg behind my right leg, which you would think is opposite to the way I should curl my leg giving the discrepency is in the left leg, but all I can say is that I stand without feeling unsteady for a lot longer that with both feet flat on the ground. If you are very concerned with discrepencies in your/your child's leg length, have a chat with your consultant - they work miracles. x