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Fibular Hemimelia

Diagnosis, Treatment and Support

By Jacqueline Bodnar

Pregnancy can be a stressful time for some people, for a variety of reasons, one of which is wondering if your child will be born with any type of abnormality.

Ultrasound appointments during pregnancy can be a roller coaster ride. On the one hand, you want to see how the baby is doing and maybe even get a sneak peek at the gender. On the other hand, you know in the back of your mind that the reason they are doing the ultrasound is to make sure that everything is OK and that the baby is developing normally.

The reality is that while most people will learn that their fetus is developing as should be, others are told something different. Some parents learn through their pregnancy ultrasound that the baby's fibula, the outer smaller bone between the knee and ankle, is either absent or partially absent. This condition is referred to as fibular hemimelia.

If your baby is diagnosed with this condition, it can leave you with a lot of questions: What exactly is it? How did it happen? What does it mean in terms of the limitations and treatment that your child may experience as she grows? Knowing the answers to some of these questions will help put the issue a little more into perspective so you are better able to set your child on the path to success, despite the condition.

"Fibular hemimelia is the most common long-bone congenital absence or hypoplasia," says Dr. Christopher Iobst, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and director of the Limb Correction Program at the Miami Children's Hospital. "It encompasses a spectrum of associated abnormalities of varying degrees of severity."

Dr. Iobst, who specializes in the correction of limb deformities and limb-length discrepancies, explains that along with fibular absence or hypoplasia, a condition where the fibular is below normal size, some additional conditions may be present. Some of those conditions may include limb-length inequality, femoral retroversion, hip dysplasia, disturbances of ankle morphology, tarsal coalition and forefoot deficiencies. The condition usually happens during the 2nd to 8th week of gestational development.

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