[Femur lengthening in children and adolescents. Comparative study of a series of 82 cases].

The authors reviewed 82 cases of femur lengthenings performed in 71 children and adolescents during a period of 15 years. They successively used 6 technics, the one-stage lengthening 14 times, the Judet technic 20 times, the Wagner technic 13 times, a personal technic combining the transversal osteotomy and a grafting 11 times, the llizarov technic 4 times, the callotasis technic 20 times. They study the complications faced, according to the technic, the etiology, the importance of the shortening, the age, and the repetition of the procedure. If the previous lengthenings were always achieved, complications frequently occurred with the ancient technics. In the authors' experience, the callotasis technic is the best, since they had no serious complications out of 20 cases, and 85 p. 100 of the patients had none apart from the inevitable infection of the pins in progressive lengthenings. They provide explanations to this important improvement and recall the details of the technics.