Alder Hey surgeons pioneer new technique to treat boy with rare leg condition in UK first

Credit: PA

By Ella Pickover, PA

A nine-year-old boy has become the first person in the UK to have pioneering surgery to make him taller thanks to surgeons at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

Alfie Phillips has fibular hemimelia, which affects fewer than one in 40,000 births and caused his right leg to not develop properly, leaving it more than an inch shorter than his left.

Medics implanted a lengthening nail on the surface of Alfie’s right thigh bone, which was slowly pulled apart over time using magnets to help him gain 3cm.

Prior to seeing specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, his only option for treatment was to have an external frame fixed to his bone with pins or wires, which carries a risk of pain, infection and scarring.

Alfie, from Northampton, told the Press Association that he was “excited” and scared to be the first to have the procedure, but almost a year on he is now “running around as normal” and enjoys playing basketball.