A 9-year-old boy, Alfie Phillips, has become the first person in the UK to undergo pioneering surgery to lengthen one of his legs, according to a report by the BBC.
Alfie, from Northampton, has a rare condition called fibular hemimelia, which caused his right leg to not develop properly, leaving it more than an inch shorter than his left. Experts at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital performed the new treatment, which involved implanting a lengthening nail on the surface of Alfie's right thigh bone.
The operation, which took place in March 2025, allowed Alfie to gain 3cm in leg length. He spent less than a week in hospital and has since been able to return to normal activities, including playing basketball.
Medical Procedure
The new method, developed in the US, involved placing a lengthening nail - known as a motorised telescopic nail - on the surface of Alfie's femur, the long bone in the thigh. A magnetic device was placed on Alfie's leg three times a day for a month to make the limb longer.
This process helped the nail slowly pull the two bone ends apart - by around 1mm each day - while the body naturally filled the gap with new bone tissue. Alfie underwent weekly physiotherapy sessions and reviews by doctors and specialist nurses until the lengthening process had finished, which took around six weeks.
Recovery and Outcome
Alfie's mother, Laura Ducker, 34, said her son healed really well and coped magnificently with the treatment. Specialists at Alder Hey measured the difference at 4cm (1.6in) and projected it would increase to 6cm (2.4in) by the time Alfie was fully grown at around 16.
Nick Peterson, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Alder Hey, described Alfie's recovery as 'remarkable' and said his experience for his age has been 'vastly superior to what it would have been' with traditional methods. The hospital has since performed the technique on three other children with fibular hemimelia.
