Bilateral femoral shortening for overgrowth in young adults

Through 17 years ten patients were treated for psychologically unacceptable tallness by bilateral femoral shortening. All were young adults between 17 and 28 years; one was acromegalic, one had Marfans syndrome and the other were tall for unknown reasons. The amount of shortening obtained was between 6 and 16 cm. One patient was reoperated bilaterally because of insufficient stability of the pin and plate fixation. All patients healed without significant complications. For exclusive cases, which have been carefully observed over several months, bilateral shortening seems to be a safe procedure either with midshaft shortening and Küntscher nailing or subtrochanteric femoral shortening with pin and plate fixation. At review all patients were satisfied with their decision to be surgically shortened. Similar cases seem not to have been published.