Volume 16 Number 4, SUMMER 1999

Is limb lengthening for the little?

Related stories:
Way to Grow

YOU MIGHT EXPECT THAT LIMB LENGTHENING WOULD BE A CLEAR BOON TO A PERSON OF EXCEEDINGLY SHORT STATURE YEARNING FOR A FEW EXTRA INCHES OF HEIGHT.

The reality is murky, however.

Some people, including many dwarfs who have undergone limb lengthening, are advocates of the procedure. They say limb lengthening allows dwarfs to function more effectively in a society oriented toward adults five feet and taller.

But most orthopedists who do limb lengthening disagree, says Lawrence Rinsky, MD, a Stanford orthopedist who performs the procedure, though not on dwarfs. Most orthopedists won't treat dwarfs -- not because it takes three to five years and about $150,000, says Rinsky, but because the health risks of lengthening outweigh the potential benefits to a healthy, albeit extremely short, person. "To lengthen a dwarf who is, for example, 3'11" and make him go through a difficult year to get six inches may not be worth it," says Rinsky, a professor of functional restoration. "There are just too many risks, including infection, delayed healing, weakening and psychological problems." The largest and most vocal national organization of dwarfs, the Little People of America, agrees.

Still, some orthopedists treat dwarfs. "It's commonly done in Europe, it's done at the University of Maryland's Center for Limb Lengthening, and a couple of doctors in Los Angeles do it," says Rinsky.

"But personally, I think that creating more adaptive devices -- to reach a car's foot pedals, for example -- to make life easier for dwarfs is a much better alternative."