Limb length discrepancy: symptoms, diagnostics, treatment

Limb length discrepancy is a conditional pathology. This is a broad concept relevant to the aspects of medicine, genetics, orthopedics and cosmetology.

Is limb length discrepancy a deformation, a pathology or norm?

Whatever the reason, the disproportion of the limbs can be noticed visually with the naked eye. There are three body types:

• balanced build;
• long legs and a short torso;
• short legs and a long torso.

These constitutions are formed in the stage of evolution. For example, the inhabitants of Africa have long legs for good heat emission, and the inhabitants of the northern regions have the opposite peculiarities. It is short legs that often lead to psychological complexes, even though they can be considered as kind of ordinary.

Limb length discrepancy is a pathology when one leg is 2 cm or more longer than the other. This is not only an aesthetic problem, but a defect fraught with serious consequences.

The causes of limb length discrepancy

If evolution and anatomical features are not taken into account, the causes of imbalance lie in various diseases:

• hereditary or intrauterine malformations of bone tissue;infections (tuberculosis, syphilis) and
• osteomyelitis (bone inflammation);
• injuries and fractures;
• pathologies of the pelvis and spine;
• dyschondroplasia (congenital incomplete ossification of cartilage);
• diseases of nerve endings, vessels and muscles.

Such cases of limb length discrepancy are in fact deformations of the entire musculoskeletal system which require mandatory treatment.