Abstract
Introduction
The effect of lower extremity lengthening on physeal growth is still controversial. We aim to compare data of the patients who had bilateral simultaneous femur and tibia lengthening with the patients who underwent the lengthening surgery separately for the femur and tibia at the end of completed skeletal maturation in terms of the effect of physeal growth.
Materials and Methods
Twenty-six patients were included who operated in our clinic between 1995 and 2015 for limb lengthening. Fourteen patients with bilateral lengthening of the femur and tibia at the same time were named as simultaneous lengthening (SL). Twelve patients with bilateral lengthening of the femur and then bilateral tibia lengthening seperately were named consecutively lengthening (CL). All patients were followed until completion of growth. The physeal arrest was measured using predicted length (investigated with the multiplier method), the total amount of lengthening and final length.
Results
Mean lower limb lengthening was 145 mm (48,5%) and 151 mm (46,6%) for simultaneous and consecutive groups respectively. For lower extremity length, the SL reached 527,6 mm while expected was 447,3 mm. Considering 151 mm lengthening, the mean growth disturbance for the SL was 70,7 mm. The CL group revealed a mean of 47,5 mm disturbance. For total height comparison, disturbance was 80,5mm and 65,4mm respectively.
Conclusions
Although simultaneous four segment lengthening have more physiological physeal disturbance effects compared to consecutive operations, there was no statistical difference between the two groups.
