Who is a candidate for limb lengthening?
Limb lengthening surgery may be helpful if you have specific clinical conditions affecting your limbs, or if you are seeking to increase your height for aesthetic reasons. Whether you are a clinical or aesthetic candidate, limb lengthening can be life changing, offering improved mobility, body symmetry, and self-esteem.
If you were born with a congenital defect or have had physical trauma or certain medical conditions that cause differing leg lengths, you may benefit from limb lengthening surgery to restore balance and function. While you may use assistive devices like shoe lifts, canes, crutches, or braces to move around, without equal limb length, your body mechanics—the way you move—are significantly affected. This can lead to long-term discomfort or disability.
Some conditions that may benefit from limb lengthening surgery include:
- Malunion/Nonunion fractures: After a bone fracture, sometimes the bone doesn’t heal correctly (malunion) or fails to heal at all (nonunion), resulting in uneven limbs.
- Cancer resection: In some cases, cancer treatment involves resection, the removal of bone, which can leave limbs of unequal length.
- Disease such as scoliosis or polio: Conditions like scoliosis (an abnormal curve in the spine) or polio (a viral infection affecting muscles and nerves) may cause limb differences or deformities.
- Congenital defects such as hemimelia: Hemimelia is a birth defect where part of a limb is missing or underdeveloped.
Some people choose limb lengthening surgery for aesthetic reasons, seeking to improve their height or address conditions related to short stature. In these cases, the goal is not to correct medical issues, but to improve quality of life and personal confidence.
- Dwarfism: People with dwarfism reach a final adult height of no more than 4 feet 10 inches due to genetic or medical factors.
- Premature puberty: Some people experience early growth spurts that stop before full development.
- Constitutional low stature: This refers to a condition where a person is of shorter than average height, but there is no underlying medical disorder.