ABSTRACT
Congenital brachymetatarsia causes minor disability in daily life. However, patients suffer cosmetically or psychologically and often demand correction of the deformity when they reach adolescence. Thirty-eight skeletal lengthenings were performed on twenty-three patients with congenital brachymetatarsia between March 1992 and July 1993. Short metatarsal bones were osteotomized subperiosteally, and held by a small external fixator and then subjected to slow axial distraction. All the patients were female with an average age of patients at the time of operation was twenty-one years. The average lengthenings was 15.8mm. The average healing index was 80.6(day/cm). The average lengthenings percentage was 35.2%. There was a metatarso-phalangeal joint subluxation with pain in one patient. We believe that the callotasis method was no need for bone grafting and permitted early weight bearing. The result was good cosmetically.