Woman, 21, has surgery to extend her stunted left leg - PHOTO

Xu Juan, 21, suffered from a bone infection when she was a child.Due to poor medical facilities in her hometown, her thigh bone was eroded by bacteria.This left her left leg nine inches (23cm) shorter than her right and meant she had to walk with the aid of crutches for most of her life.However, over the years her parents saved everything they could and recently were able to pay for her to have surgery. Dr Hu Yihe said: ‘Her condition was very complicated. As she not only had a shorter leg, but her knee and hip joints were also underdeveloped and had to be replaced.‘So we made a treatment plan of two phases. The first phase was to extend her left leg and make the two legs evenly long.'The second phase of surgery was replacing the left knee joint and left hip joint.'Ms Xu had four operations in total between October 2012 and October 2013.To lengthen her leg, a metal cage was fitted to her left leg and each day she had to turn a screw to stretch her leg a little more.Dr Hu said: ‘After the surgeries, each day Xu Juan needed to turn the toothed gear to extend her left leg 1mm.‘The extension must go very slowly, as nerves and vessels need time to be extended. If the extension went too fast, the nerves or vessels could snap, causing permanent paralysis.’It took a year to lengthen Ms Xu’s leg, after which she had surgery to fit an artificial left knee and hip joint in October 2013.Her treatments finally finished at the end of February this year and doctors say that after a few months of rehabilitation, she will be able to walk normally.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az