PFFD VSG2

There is a new procedure (2000) that the inventors are calling the "Super Hip." A technical description was written for doctors in the article Lengthening Reconstruction Surgery for Congenital Femoral Deficiency.

A parent of a child with PFFD send me this e-mail. I thought it was applicable here and have quoted it.

I worked for one month as an intern with a physiatrist. During this time there were many things that came up that I felt to be very applicable for children with PFFD that I think is not so easy to find out otherwise.

1. The gait is pretty much established by the time a child is 4 years old. Any prostheses used to this time should be integrated as early and often as possible to help the child develop the gait that requires the least amount of extra energy expended.

2. Knee strain can often result from the crouch walking that many children with PFFD use to compensate for the shorter leg. This knee strain can develop to be patellofemoral pain syndrome or patella alta. Both of these conditions are fairly painful and do not present until the early teens but often can cause a setback in terms of the willingness of the child to continue usual activities.

After year 1 come the "toddler years." Some thoughts from other parents with kids with PFFD.

Your child is growing and learning words. A funny story here: Our daughter is a unilateral-PFFDer. The surgeon we met with was talking about we might think about, when she gets older, stop the growth of the unaffected leg. He used the phrase "arrest development of the longer leg " as part of a sentence. Our daughter got very concerned and pulled down her mom to whisper in her ear ... "Why does he want to put my leg in jail!?!"