Search

The responses of soft tissues to limb lengthening or stretching are: reduction in physiological slack, tissue migration from the adjacent region, stress relaxation (as occurs in viscoelastic materials), tissue formation, and tissue injuries. Theoretically, an optimal condition for limb lengthening is that under which new tissues are formed without injury. However, phenomena, such as angiogenesis in the dermis, due to tissue hypoxia, suggest that injury triggers tissue formation; the conditions under which tissue formation and tissue injury occur are not always opposed. Components of the soft tissues of the leg have their own distinctive functions, biological activity, and biomechanical properties, so that the relationship between tissue injury and functional impairment differs among these tissues. Very little information on limb lengthening in humans is available, in terms of the mechanism of soft tissue lengthening. Further work is needed to determine the optimal lengthening conditions for each soft tissue.