[Guided growth in children and adolescents. Correction of leg length discrepancies and leg axis deformities].

The treatment of crooked legs and unequal leg length is one of the key tasks of orthopedic surgery. While mature patients usually require complex and invasive surgical interventions, the growth potential of the physes can be used to advantage for correction of these leg length discrepancies and axis deformities of the legs in growing children and adolescents. This guided growth is induced by temporary or permanent and partial or complete arrest of the growth plate, depending on the indications. This technique is called epiphysiodesis. Although these procedures are principally less invasive with few complications, accurate preoperative indications and planning, precise surgical techniques and careful postoperative follow-up examinations are mandatory prerequisites to achieve the desired therapeutic target.