One Is Not Like the Other: Leg-Length Inequality

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One Is Not Like the Other: Leg-Length Inequality
2003 Feb
The Journal of the American Chiropractic Association (JACA) Online

Abstract: "Just long enough to reach the ground," Abraham Lincoln famously replied to the question, "How long should a man's legs be?" But what if the right leg reaches the ground sooner than the left one does? It happens more often than most people might think. Disparities in leg length, in fact, may be relatively common: a study published in Spine in 1983 found that 43.5 percent of people with no back pain symptoms had leg-length inequality of five millimeters or more, while a whopping 75.4 percent of study subjects with chronic low-back pain had similar leg-length discrepancies.

"Leg-length inequality is a significant factor in chronic low-back pain. But it's associated not only with lumbar spine pain but hip joint pain, as well," says Leo Bronston, DC, who practices in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and serves as vice president of the ACA's Council on Orthopedics. "It can also affect the knee, but most of the time you're going to find that a patient will have chronic lower-back pain and hip pain."

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