2024 Children's of Alabama/UAB Annual Report

Surgery

Leading the Way in Limb Deformity Care

Born with one leg shorter than the other, the young boy set two exciting goals after Children’s of Alabama chief of orthopedics Shawn Gilbert, M.D., corrected his condition with leg-lengthening surgery. The first was to buy a pair of “cool” sneakers that didn’t require lifts to align his gait; the second was to learn to ride a bike, which he couldn’t manage before. Two decades later, Gilbert still keeps updates the boy’s parents have sent him through the years, grateful for how their son’s life was transformed. It’s just one example of the thousands of young patients who have benefited from Children’s Limb Deformities Program, which launched after Gilbert’s arrival in 2003 and is now recognized for its deep expertise across Alabama and the globe. “I often tell patients that limb-lengthening surgery is my favorite kind of surgery to do, because I still can’t believe it works,” said Gilbert, who’s also a professor of surgery in the Division of Orthopedic Surgery at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). “Essentially what you’re doing is dividing a bone and stretching it apart and then watching it fill in with new bone in the gap. The whole process, to me, is really amazing and never gets old.” Gilbert’s fascination with the field has helped cultivate a similar mindset among the department, which includes seven orthopedic surgeons—more than the total number of pediatric orthopedic surgeons in the rest of Alabama. Serving patients with conditions that include bone diseases and dysplasias such as rickets and achondroplasia, Blount’s (a disorder in the growth plates in the bones around the knee) and undeveloped limbs, the limb deformities program offers both surgical and non-surgical treatments for these children, whose mobility and morale can both suffer because of their differences.

≈ 140 patients are enrolled in Children’s Limb Deficiency Clinic

2024 Academic Annual Report

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