Introduction: Lower limb deficiency in childhood has an impact on acquisition of motor skills. Information regarding the characteristics of this population was examined in several countries but not in Israel.
Aims: To provide demographics, clinical and functional characteristics of children with lower limb deficiency in a pediatric rehabilitation department.
Methods: Children with lower limb deficiency participated in this study. The study variables included demographics, and clinical and functional characteristics. The statistical analysis included calculations of frequency, chi-squared tests and correlations.
Results: During the years 1998-2015 fifty-eight children with lower extremity deformity were treated/examined in the department (mean age: 6.46+4.70 years; girls, n=21; congenital deformity, n=23; acquired deformity, n=35). The most common congenital and acquired injury was unilateral leg deformity (31% and 35%, respectively). In congenital injury, multi-limb deformity (including an involvement in the upper limb) is more prevalent than bilateral lower limb deformity (p<0.01). In children with congenital deformity, longitudinal deformity is more prevalent than transverse deformity (p<0.03). Among children with acquired injury, in 40% the etiology was sickness-related and in the rest traumatic. Among the traumatic group, 57% of the injuries were terror-related. More than 50% percent of the children underwent a complex surgical procedure (34% and 22% among congenital and acquired injury, respectively). The ambulation level of the sample was lower than expected.
Conclusions: Children who received treatment due to lower limb deformity presented high variability in their characteristics and low ambulation level. Consequently, it is important to create and manage a register for pediatric lower limb deformity.