[Technical orthopedic compensation of leg length inequality]

The objectives and limitations in the prescription and construction of leg length adjustments are reviewed. The functional and structural significance of differences in leg length for patients and for healthy persons in different age groups and in different growth phases is considered. A few unconventional ideas, and some information and personal and environmental characteristics are described, leading to a discussion of care criteria that go further than the more usual care systems. It is stressed that interdisciplinary care makes it absolutely essential to note what system of measurement is being used when the treatment is prescribed. Attention is drawn to the possibility of using electrophysiological measurements--whether in the doctor's or physiotherapist's practice or in the orthopedic workshop--for monitoring. Unchanged biomechanical and orthopedic positions are shown in sketches.