6 cm without Achille tendon or 9 cm?

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Hello guys,

I lengthened 7.5 cm, but the doctor has told me I can not go further without doing the Achilles tendons.

You may think that 7.5 cm are a lot, but the doctor also told me to always consider 1 cm less than what I turned in the external fixator. Plus, once I will removed it, I will lose another 0.5 cm. So actually I did 6 cm real.

Now I have to choose whether to do the Achilles tendons or stop. If I do it, I can still lengthen 2-3 cm, reaching 8-9 cm real in the end. The doctor advises me to do this additional operation, since there are no long-term consequences.

What do you think?

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I forgot to add, final heigh 177 cm real

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Quote from: onemorefoot on January 26, 2017, 12:00:14 AMI think you should just stay at 6 cm, if you want more you should consider femurs. I read other diaries with Pili_Catagni and normally the amount lengthened is .5 cm less than reallity, 1  cm is a Lot. Also what doctors say about lifts, can I continue using them?

What you turn in the external fixator is always 10-15% more than your real lengthening. So 1 cm less is normal, plus you have to add 0.5 cm that will be lost when you remove it. So 1,5 cm I think is about the procedure not the doctor.

Yeah it is an hard decision, I booked for the ATL but I am thinking a lot about it.

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Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on January 26, 2017, 05:43:33 PMAre your legs now 7 cms longer than before, or 6 cms?

6 cm

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Quote from: 0184946 on January 27, 2017, 07:54:43 PMif u want to do more then go for achille tendon it'll remove the worries of ballerina completely but its painful from what i hear. if ur ok now with how u feel at 6 cm then finish lengthening and do another seg in femurs later

Hey friend, I don't think I will ever do femur. This is not a joke and after more than 3 months with EF I am tired. So I would rather prefer to do ATL now and get 2-3 cm more rather then stop and do femur later.

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Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on January 27, 2017, 10:24:02 PMI don't understand why the legs would be 1.5 cms shorter than what you lengthened? Does the bone recompress again, and when does this happen?

Also, can you not measure your height while still in fixators?

I don't know in specific how to answer this question, but there is a technical reason that the doctor explained to me regarding why what you turn in the EF is always 10-15% less than the real lengthening. So since I did so far 7,5 cm, it is something around 1 cm in my case.

You will lose another 0,5 cm when the EF will be removed, but here again, I do not know the reason exactly. This is just what the doctor told me.

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Quote from: zenithian on January 29, 2017, 09:39:09 AMhey cam,
i can see this decision is really difficult
you can ask the forum of course but you are going to get so many different answers here
i think you should ask Dr. Pili for contacts/email of people who have experience with AL
that is the only way to get a good idea for your decision
-zen

I did, I contacted 4 former patience of dr. Catagni and all of them told me that after ATL they recovered 100%.

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I had Achille Tendon Lengthening, tomorrow will be 10 days already. I can stand and walk with no problem but I have of course some pain in the heel since I have 2 wires there. I will remove them in other 20 days. The cut is bad but I will remove the stitches in few days. So it seems everything fine, I'll keep you posted.

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too late I had ATL, first few days have been bad, but after 2 weeks I am feeling very good now, I can walk better than before with no pain and the doctor said we will remove the wires from my feet in other 2 weeks.

I will let you know if I recover 100% or not, but I trust the doctor who guaranteed me that there are no long term consequences

I think, but it is just an opinion, a lot could be related to the method you use for ATL and how long you lengthen the tendon.

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Quote from: 682 on March 07, 2017, 08:31:23 PMEven without long term consequences, you will not recover to 100%. The numerous studies on ATL, including the ones I had posted prove that it is not possible to return to 100%.

I hope you are wrong. That study anyway refers to a specific case of Achille Tendon Rupture and excessive lengthening. Moreover, I have not seen many of them, I found instead (when I was searching before doing the ATL) a lot of studies about ATL that did not mention long term consequences. Moreover, ATL is done for a lot of problems, not only as a consequence of LL and equino feet. So I am not that worried honestly.