Bow leg is a joke on people's O-shaped or nearly O-shaped legs. Bowed leg is a kind of deformity with abnormal bone development, which is also called genu varus in medicine. The external splayed leg is also called "X-shaped leg", which is medically called genu valgus and is one of the common leg deformities. Especially teenagers, the incidence rate is higher.
Patients generally have no conscious symptoms, and the appearance is easy to distinguish. When the feet are together, there is an O-shaped gap between them. The more obvious the symptoms, the greater the gap between the legs. Knee valgus is the opposite. If you get this kind of lower limb deformity, when you grow up, your child will not only lose his physical beauty, but also walk badly, and sometimes it will affect his joining the army and his work.
The cause of bowleg
1. Skeletal deformation caused by rickets in childhood.
The main cause of rickets in children is the lack of vd in the body. On the one hand, it is difficult for the small intestine to absorb calcium and phosphorus, and the kidney excretes calcium and phosphorus, resulting in calcium and phosphorus deficiency; On the other hand, the new bones can't calcify themselves, but the growing bones have decalcification.
2. The growth and development of bones are influenced by special living habits.
When vd is lacking in the body, calcium and phosphorus will decrease, which leads to, on the one hand, decalcification of the grown bones under the regulation of the thyroid gland to supplement calcium and phosphorus in the blood; On the other hand, newly grown bones become soft due to lack of calcium, and muscles and joints are slack. When a child walks upright, the bones will be deformed by gravity.
3. The influence of exercise and sitting posture
Children in infancy and adolescence are constantly developing, and their bones grow and calcify day by day. If the child has some strange habits or hobbies, the bones will be pulled in a certain direction by muscles, and the children's bones will be deformed after a long time. For example, if you are caught sleeping or riding a horse for a long time, you will become a bowlegged person.
Criteria for judging bowlegged legs
1. Put your feet and palms together, relax your legs and stand up straight. If there is a distance between your knees, it means you have bowlegs.
2. Generally, according to the normal knee distance and the active knee distance, judge the severity of the bowleg. According to the normal knee distance and the active knee distance, the bowleg can be divided into I degree, II degree, III degree and IV degree.
Normal knee distance refers to the distance between the inside of two knees when the ankles are together when standing upright and the legs and knees are relaxed.
Active knee distance refers to the distance between ankle, leg and knee when standing upright, and the distance between the inner knees.
(1) The normal knee distance is less than 3 cm, and the active knee distance is 0, which belongs to degree I;
(2) The normal knee distance is less than 3 cm and the active knee distance is greater than 0, which belongs to the second degree;
(3) The normal knee distance is 3-5 cm, which is ⅲ degree;
(4) The normal knee distance is greater than 5 cm, which belongs to ⅳ degree.
What's the harm of bowlegged legs?
1, seriously endangering the body.
For people with arched legs, the body weight is concentrated on the inside of the knee joint, and the load-bearing line moves inward. This makes the lateral muscles of the calf exert more force when walking and standing, while the medial muscles cannot exert force. Therefore, the lateral muscles of the legs are well developed, while the medial muscles are thin. Therefore, the gap between the legs is larger; The outer contour of the leg moves further outward, and the lower limbs appear more bloated.
Step 2 hurt joints
Normal knee joint, the pressure is evenly distributed on the joint surface. However, people with arched legs, due to varus knees, have too much weight concentrated on the inner articular surface of the knee joint. Excessive pressure and friction will lead to the wear of the medial cartilage surface of the knee joint, the collapse of the tibial plateau and secondary osteoarthritis. Older people are prone to joint pain, which affects normal walking activities.
Can bowlegs be inherited?
1, caused by acquired disease
Some bowlegs are acquired, such as trauma, lack of essential vitamins in the body, or polio. There are no genes that can cause hereditary malformation in patients' cells, and there are no genes that can cause hereditary diseases in patients with this malformation, so they cannot be passed on to future generations.
2, caused by congenital genetic diseases
Another cause of bowlegs is heredity, that is, pathogenic genes can be passed from parents to children. Generally speaking, it can be divided into two types, one is diseases caused by congenital metabolic abnormalities, and the other is hereditary skeletal dysplasia, such as achondroplasia and epiphysis. The latter disease is less.
Bow leg correction
1, a simple motion correction method
(1) Stand up straight, put your feet together, and bend your knees to do squats and stand up for 20-30 times.
(2) Bend down, and make circular movements with both hands and knees to the left and right for 20-30 times.
(3) Keep your feet slightly open, bend over, and put your knees in your arms to stop your knees from leaning inward. Stop for 10 second each time and do it for 5- 10 times.
(4) Stand with two feet in parallel. First, take the heel as the axis and do toe abduction and internal rotation; Then do heel abduction and internal rotation 20-30 times with tiptoe as the axis.
(5) Sit in a chair and try to hold the book with your calf for a while. If you tie your knees with rubber bands, the effect will be more obvious.
(6) Sit on your knees, your waist collapses, your feet slowly move outward, and your waist will gradually straighten. Do it 15-20 times.
2. External fixation therapy
Older patients with severe deformity often need orthopedic treatment, and the satisfactory orthopedic effect depends on the carefully designed surgical plan before operation. Bowed legs are accompanied by tibial pronation deformity, which can cause one limb to shorten and both sides to be short. It should be corrected at the same time during operation. Drug treatment is often needed for bowlegged legs caused by special reasons (such as renal rickets with low phosphorus and anti-D). After the condition is stable, osteotomy and orthopedic surgery are feasible.
The traditional treatment of bowleg is wedge osteotomy at the upper tibia through the lateral incision of the calf, oblique osteotomy at different planes of the fibula, internal fixation with crossed L-shaped nail plate or Kirschner wire, and external fixation with plaster cast.
Minimally invasive osteotomy and external fixation to correct O-leg and other deformities have the advantages of early departure from the ground (7- 10 days after operation), less pain and quick recovery. The adjustable Meng He frame has definite orthopedic effect and short treatment course, which is shorter than the traditional operation 1/3- 1/2. This technology is in a leading position at home and abroad and is well received by patients.
How to prevent bowlegs
1, walking posture
Don't let your child walk with an outsider. If the child takes a road other than the figure of eight, then the leg is stressed outward, which will produce a force to push the knee joint outward. Every step will involve the lateral collateral ligament of the knee joint. Over time, the collateral ligament will lose its original tension, and the joints at the knees will turn inward, thus forming a bowlegged leg.
2. Sitting posture
Remember not to cross your legs when sitting, and don't cross your legs, let alone kneel down.
Step 3: Standing posture
Don't bear the center of gravity with one leg when standing. Because in this case, the knee joint of the leg under physical pressure will be pulled outward by a force, which will cause the knee joint to turn inward. In the long run, children will have bowlegs, or their symptoms will get worse.
Step 4 sleep position
When sleeping, try not to let the children sleep cross-legged.
Step 5 exercise
Parents should encourage their children to take more exercise and take more activities outside instead of staying at home all day. Through exercise, the strength of children's leg muscles will be enhanced and the absorption of calcium will become better. Even though I got bowlegged when I was a child, through exercise, most of my children will return to normal when they reach school age.
Step 6 prescribe diet
Parents should give their children more calcium-rich foods, such as cheese, kelp and black sesame seeds. Let children get more sunshine, so that their absorption of calcium will become more adequate.