In last week’s blog, I talked a little bit about the hip joint, causes of hip pain, and possible treatments for hip pain. This week, I’ll be discussing another possible cause of hip pain: leg-length inequality.
Both Functional and Anatomic leg length inequality (ALLI) are conditions where one leg is shorter than the other. When a person with either of these conditions is in the standing position, the result is an unlevel pelvis and/or sacrum (the bone that sits under the spine), off-centering of the ribcage, and tilting of the shoulders and head. Functional leg-length inequality is usually caused by traumatic injury, while anatomic may be caused by the following:
- Often times a person with an anatomical short leg just developed that way. Simply, one leg did not grow to be as long at the other.
- Another increasingly common cause of ALLI is “iatrogenic”, or physician caused. Some patients undergo total hip arthroplasty, or a total hip replacement, and the resultant artificial joint was made to the wrong length, resulting in ALLI. Many of these people did not have ALLI previously. This occurs unintentionally as it is difficult to judge the size of the prosthetic to be placed in the femur of the replaced hip side. – Chiropractic BioPhysics
Having one leg shorter than the other is a common physical condition. In fact, approximately one out of five, or 20% of people have a short leg of at least 10 mm.
One of the services River Ridge Chiropractic offers is Foot Care, and this includes the use of Orthotics. Stabilizing Orthotics have been shown to specifically reduce pain from leg length inequality and can improve posture and the effectiveness of chiropractic adjustment. For those with anatomic leg-length inequality, an orthotic with a built-in lift may be needed. With functional leg-length inequality, a lift is rarely used to correct the problem. Rather, other chiropractic treatments, such as adjustments, are used to help re-balance the body. At River Ridge Chiropractic, we have specific methods for measuring leg inequality and determining the best course of treatment.
-Dr. Bart
