Recent advances in surgery of lower limb deficiencies.

A vast literature describing the treatment of lower limb deficiencies has accumulated in the past 20 years. Amputation and prosthetic replacement has come to be recognized as the major technique of limb-length restoration in these major lower-limb deficiencies. Experience has shown that early amputation can avoid major repetitive surgical procedures, and that disarticulation is the procedure of choice in the young child. A better understanding of the natural history of these major limb deficiencies has permitted the surgeon to develop a treatment program when the child is first seen, and to be able to recommended it to the parents with confidence.