Quote from: myloginacct on May 25, 2018, 09:22:10 PMUnicorn... if it's not too much, I wanted to ask your personal opinion. I don't recall seeing it asked here before.
When do you think this surgery (CLL) is legitimate? If that question makes any sense to you.
I don't mind it if you'd rather not answer too. Thank you for your all time here.
After being a patient of the NHS (free public hospitals) in the UK, I realize that limb lengthening has been around for some time. It was primarily used for trauma/accidents/deformities when one limb is shorter than the other. Doctors use the Illizarov method (external frames) to lengthen the femur/tibia and even arms.
So, in the UK for example, the RNOH (Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital) even has a guide to limb lengthening using Precice, which primarily instructs patients not to lengthen more than 1mm per day (https://www.rnoh.nhs.uk/our-services/limb-reconstruction). So now that I'm a patient there, I realize a lot of people do undergo limb lengthening, just not voluntarily or for cosmetic reasons like we do.
At the same time, if one has been plagued psychologically with short stature neurosis, the NHS and certain medical insurance companies actually approve and pay for cosmetic limb lengthening surgery. Yes! I never realized that too! And many of us would have qualified seeing that short stature is something that would have affected us since our teenage years and would continue to do so for the rest of our lives. It probably does determine a substantial part of our destiny too. And hence, we find ourselves in this forum together.
So the only thing I can reply is, it has always been legitimate with the right doctor and monitoring. I think it helps to follow organizations like the NHS which has nothing to gain by its choices of methods. They use Precice because not only is it FDA approved but also because it causes less mental anguish/trauma (of clicking/racheting), even if not fully weight bearing until Stryde comes out.
At the end of the day, when you think about the argument that you need to bear weight on your bones for it to fuse or grow, it doesn't make much sense. Anyone who's ever broken a bone knows that even if you had it in a cast and you're hanging there helplessly in a hospital bed for 2-3 months, your bones would still fuse and heal up. So the weight bearing part is not a necessity for bone consolidation but a practical optionality for many of us to continue on with our lives including returning back to work.
And while full weight bearing is practical, it actually puts us at a higher risk of accidents/falling etc., which happened to many of my classmates and myself inevitably just because we're crutching/framing/climbing into taxis/up & down stairs/streets to physios, tests and other unnecessary activities on a daily basis without the safety of a wheelchair to lean on when fatigued/chaotic.
So, is it legitimate? Yes, it has been for a long time. You just want to know what to look out for, monitor your own progress closely and be accountable for yourself.
NHS/RNOH showed me how their lengthening process is usually monitored :
- Many doctors prefer to wait 1-2 weeks post osteotomy/initial surgery before starting to lengthen
- Be cautious and do not rush (it's not a race!)
- Lengthen less than 1mm per day
- Depending on gender and age of patient (and smoking habit), they choose internal or external methods (Internal methods require reaming of your bones, so healing could be slower)
- Then, bi-weekly xrays need to show callus bridging and the lengthening rate thus changes depending on how fast or slow the bone consolidation is
- Use a nail that can stop and/or reverse in case of non-union/runaway lengthening
- And they do not allow too much lengthening if the soft tissues cannot keep up (like IT band, psoas, hamstrings and quads etc). because recovery to normal walking gait might take forever or further surgeries would be required
Does this answer your 'legitimate' question? My view is all cosmetic doctors are out to maximize profit especially those who manufacture their own brand of nails because they have the biggest profit margin to gain. Hence, becareful of this conflict of interest, which is not 'legitimate' or legal in most countries.
