title: Inequality in leg length is important for the understanding of the pathophysiology of lumbar disc herniation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Inequality in leg length may lead to to abnormal transmission of load across the endplates and degeneration lumbar spine and the disc space. There has been no study focusing on lumbar disc herniation (LDH) and leg length discrepancy. This subject was investigated in this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consecutive adult patients with leg length discrepancy and low back pain (LBP) admitted to our department were respectivelly studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total number of 39 subjects (31 women and eight men) with leg length discrepancy and LBP and 43 (25 females and 18 males) patients with LBP as a control group were tested. Occurrence of disc herniation is statistically different between patients with hip dysplasia and control groups (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study showed a statistically significant association between leg length discrepancy and occurrence of LDH. The changes of spine anatomy with leg length discrepancy in hip dysplastic patients are of importance in understanding the nature of LDH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet Sabri
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Balik
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayhan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanat
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Adem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Erkut
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman Ersagun
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Batcik
keywords: Inequality; leg length; lumbar disc herniation (LDH)