"Alfie Phillips has a rare condition called fibular hemimelia, which caused his right leg to not develop properly, leaving it more than an inch shorter than his left. Thanks to the new treatment by experts at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital he has been able to gain 3cm. Alfie, from Northampton, said he had been "excited" and scared to be the first to have the procedure, but almost a year on he is now "running around as normal" and enjoyed playing basketball."
"Fibular hemimelia is a rare condition affecting fewer than one in 40,000 births. The new method involved implanting a lengthening nail on the surface of Alfie's right thigh bone, which is slowly pulled over time using magnets. Although lengthening nails have been fitted inside the bone of adults, the procedure was not previously an option for younger children because of the risk of damaging the growth plates."
""We know that being able to lengthen internally is less painful and a better experience overall," Nick Peterson, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Alder Hey said. "But before this technique, it wasn't available for children." Before being referred to Alder Hey in 2024, Alfie's only option to make his leg longer would have been to have an external fixator fitted."
Alfie Phillips, nine, has fibular hemimelia, leaving his right leg more than an inch shorter than his left. Surgeons at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital implanted a motorised telescopic lengthening nail on the surface of his femur in March 2025. A magnetic device was applied three times daily for a month to extend the nail roughly 1 mm per day while new bone formed in the gap. Alfie gained about 3 cm, spent under a week in hospital, avoided an external fixator, and resumed running and playing basketball after recovery.
Read at www.bbc.com
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