Can heel lifts help with 'apparent' not actual leg length discrepancy?

In the groin or the sacroiliac?

In the groin or the sacroiliac?

  1. Home >
  2. Sacralization of L5 CaseFile >
  3. Can heel lifts help with 'apparent' not actual leg length discrepancy?



Dear chiropractor

I've just been reading about Mrs D with interest. (I have the same condition though the hemi sacralisation is on my left side).

My question is did Mrs D have an apparent or actual leg length discrepancy?

I have an apparent LLD with a pelvic imbalance. My (excellent) chiropractor has told me to stop using the leg lift I was trying out on advice of a podiatrist. ( To me I seemed miserable with it and without it). He thought it might be more of a problem than not. (I have what he says is quite severe resultant scoliosis first one way then back and then back again).

I am trying to find a solution because aged 49 (having been symptomless and active and sporty all my life), a (successful) patellar tendon graft to repair a ruptured left side knee ACL after a soccer injury, seems to have triggered what I can only really describe as nearly a year of functional disability.
I struggled to resume a fluid gait. My hips / pelvis became exhausted as if I was walking with the wrong muscles. Weight bearing activity caused misery and I would be desperate to lie down after shopping or walking / going to the gym.
Eventually after several months my lower back joined in. Now I can no longer really sit or stand with any comfort.
I then found out about my hemi sacralisation & scoliosis by X-ray and am seeing a great physio.
My gluteus/hips/SI are so stiff all the time and I constantly stretch but it never changes. It has become chronic. Hip stretching helps me walk. But problems just resume. My muscles don't seem to retain the benefits of stretching. My SI joint isn't locked. Chiropractor has passed me to physio now as seems muscular. I walk and move slowly like an elderly person yet just a year ago was full of movement and life with no problems at all that I was aware of. I had set up a veteran's soccer team and was looking forward to playing on for years more. Now my only goal is to very basic functional fluidity in ordinary life. I have long given up hope of a sporting life as before. I want to be able to travel, to shop, to hike, to bend quickly and naturally etc.!!

My only real question is about the LLD because the rest as you say is about sensitively trying to find a solution in each case and I understand that my chiro and physio are best placed to keep trying to help me with that. But any other ideas of course are welcome.

Best wishes





Hello A,
Can you tell me which page at Chiropractic Help you read about Mrs D? Mostly I make the letter up to protect their identity and have no idea who she is, or where you found out about her.

The short answer is that no, a heel lift should not be used to correct an "apparent" leg length discrepancy; the correct chiropractic adjustment is what's needed.

It's complicated though; very often, when there's a true short leg, it's on the opposite side to the apparent short leg; if you used a lift to correct the 'apparent' short leg, you'd simply be making the scoliosis worse.

Correcting the true leg length discrepancy with a lift in the shoe, often will correct the "apparent" short leg automatically; but not always! Each case has to be treated on its own merits.

Making an orthotic, as podiatrists do, is an art form; done correctly it can be miraculous, but so often they don't seem to get the pronation quite right and it does indeed make the wearer miserable. I've returned to using something very simple in the shoe, sometimes under the heel, sometimes the whole foot, depending on another test. Made wrongly it certainly can worsen the problem, with knock on effects in the knee, hip and sacroiliac joints.

The difficulty with a scoliosis is that sometimes it's from the short leg, sometimes from an anomaly such as yours in the lower back. Then a heel lift in the shoe of the real short leg may balance up the pelvis, but increase the scoliosis. So, there are lots of ifs and buts.

Have you got an erect (standing) AP pelvis and Lumbar x-ray? Send it to me at brlewisatmweb.co.za Use your camera to photograph it on a window with sky background.

An ACL rupture is very serious, and frankly I would give up all ideas of playing soccer again.

Are you doing any lower back and SI exercises every morning? I recommend doing them on your bed before arising.

Just to be sure there isn't an incipient hip problem too, lie on your back, pull your knee to the chest, then to the opposite shoulder, and then into the lotus position. Are they much the same, right and left? Does it seem inordinately stiff or painful in the groin or side of the hip?

Each case I'm afraid has to be treated on it's merits; hemisacralisations can be a bugger.

I hope this helps. Thank you incidentally for taking the time to write with proper grammar, spelling etc.

Dr Barrie Lewis



Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Chiropractic help Questions (Low back pain).





Did you find this page useful? Then perhaps forward it to a suffering friend. Better still, Tweet or Face Book it.

Share this page:
Enjoy this page? Then forward it to a friend. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.