Epiphyseal distraction. Chondrodiatasis.

Chondrodiatasis is a limb-lengthening technique involving slow, controlled, symmetric epiphyseal distraction. The clinical and histological differences between this technique and distraction epiphysiolysis are described. Results are given for the elongation of 170 bone segments in 75 children (41 with limb-length discrepancies and 34 with achondroplasia). All patients were operated upon while the growth plate was still open with maximum bone maturation corresponding to Risser 2.