[Sonographic leg length measurement].

After brief presentation of the clinical and radiological methods to measure the leg length and the leg length difference the authors outline the new diagnostic method for measuring the leg length and the leg length difference by means of real time sonography. Postmortem tests and clinical examples show that ultrasound is ideal to determine exactly the length of femur and tibia. The joint gaps on the hip, knee and upper ankle joint can be demonstrated by means of a 5 MHz linear scanner. A 1 mm strong metal bar on the skin and under the scanner is placed at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the body so that the bar can be seen in the centre. A measuring device gives the distances of the joint gaps in cm so that the difference correspond to the real length of femur and tibia. This standardised measuring is done by a particularly developed bearing and measuring device. The results of the sonographical measurements on 20 corpses and checking after consecutive dissections showed in 75% of cases a 100% sonographic measuring accuracy of the total leg length. The separately considered results for femur (85%) and tibia (90) were even better. The maximum sonographic measuring fault was 1.0 cm for the femur (in one case) and 0.5 cm for the tibia, respectively. All sonographic measurements were performed with the Sonoline SL-1 of the Siemens Company (Erlangen, W-Germany). Thus, sonographical measuring of the leg length offers a reliable, non-invasive method that can be repeated as often as necessary and is simply executed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)