A state where the ankles touch and the knees are apart when a person is standing straight.
An outward curving of the bones in the legs. A normal part of development, bow legs are common in children younger than age 2. As a child grows, the curve normally straightens. Bow legs that persist beyond age 2 and into adolescence usually are an inherited trait. In rare cases, they are the result of a more serious underlying condition, such as rickets (a vitamin D deficiency that causes bones to soften), a fracture, infection, tumor, or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Abnormal out-curving of the legs, resulting in a gap between the knees on standing. A certain degree of bowing is normal in small children, but persistence into adult life, or later development of this deformity, results from abnormal growth of the epiphysis (as in Still’s disease) or arthritis. The condition can be corrected by osteotomy or interposition arthroplasty.
A deformity of the legs which comprises outward curvature of both legs at the knee. It may be normal in infancy, and occurs in osteoarthritis, rickets and other metabolic bone diseases. In early childhood it may correct with growth, but in other cases surgical correction by osteotomy or ephiphyseal stapling is possible.