Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Up to about a centimetre most people have one — it is measured standing, not lying down.
Also known as: leg-length difference · legs of different length · pelvic obliquity · heel lift · shoe raise
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
A difference in the length of the two legs. Two forms are to be distinguished: in a true difference the bone really is of different length, for instance after a fracture, an operation at the hip or from growth. In an apparent difference the bones are equally long, but a turn of the pelvis, a shortened muscle or a foot fault makes one leg seem shorter. Only the first can sensibly be compensated with a raise. The numbers are reassuring: differences up to about a centimetre occur in the majority of people and count as meaningless; a compensation is considered only from about two centimetres, and then step by step. Measuring lying down by comparing the heels is one of the least repeatable examinations there is — different examiners reach different results on the same person. Reliable are levelling with boards in standing and measurement on the image.
Stand barefoot and straight while someone lays their hands on the pelvic crests from behind. Thin boards are then placed under the lower side until the pelvis is level. The height of the boards is the number — and it is distinctly more reliable than any comparison of heels lying down.
If a compensation makes sense, it is built up over weeks — usually a third to a half of the difference at the start. The body has settled over years; an abrupt correction more often makes complaints than it removes them.
A shortened hip muscle, a turn of the pelvis or a collapsed arch on one side produce the same picture as a shorter bone. If a raise is used in that case, the cause is cemented instead of removed.
After a hip replacement a small difference often remains, and it is one of the commonest reasons for dissatisfaction after an otherwise successful operation. It is determined on the image and can usually be compensated well.
A leg-length difference is built, not acquired. What it triggers — one-sided hip and low-back complaints — can have other causes; the difference itself has no nutritional cause.
The difference is levelled while standing — boards under the shorter leg until the pelvis is horizontal. More precise is a full-leg X-ray. A lab value adds nothing here.
A leg-length difference is a matter of bone length and pelvic position. No nutrient changes it. What compensates for it is under the levers.
A leg-length difference is a question of millimetres in the bone or of muscle pull — no nutrient changes either. What counts here is the measurement in standing and, if needed at all, the step-by-step levelling.
Not for the length, but for what the unequal loading strikes: a low level makes muscle weakness and diffuse muscle pain, and both show first on the more heavily loaded side. Measured and replaced by finding.
The growth spurt is when something shifts in the spine — and the time when it can still be influenced. After the growth plates close, the shape is largely set.
A leg-length difference arises in the bone or in pelvic position. The plate has nothing to do with it — unlike almost everything else in this tool.
It is not the session that works but what continues at home afterwards. After four to six appointments you can judge whether anything is moving.
A pelvic tilt from muscle tension can be treated. A true bone-length difference cannot — it is compensated, not resolved. That distinction decides everything else.