Doing lon on tibia afraid of ballerina foot.

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I am going to do lon on my tibia and I'm afraid I will get ballerina foot. They say 5 cm is safe.  But my goal is 7cm.. I've seen many stories with lon and tibia reaching 7cm. What's going to happen if I have ballerina feet? I heard there's a foot casting. Then I hear therapy helps. My surgery will be in vietnam. The doctor has worked on ballerina foot before. But not many stories . So I'm not sure whats going to happen.  I like to know first. With lon its safer to do over 5 cm? Any theory to that?

I have the money for it just not the time. So I can't wait to get it done. In my home country too.

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From what i have read in this forum anything beyond 6 cm causes prob in tibia, no matter the method. 4 is safe, 6 is a bargain in tibia,

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equinus contracture of the ankle (ballerina feet) is not associated with method of lengthening. It is associated with baseline flexibility and amount of lengthening.

With 7cm, I strongly advise getting a gastrocnemius recession at the initial surgery. also , stretch aggressively during then lengthening and wear and ankle foot orthos is (AFO) at night)

The best treatment of it is prevention.

I have treated ballerina feet up to 60 degrees before without an issue.

I hope this helps

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So you're saying my doctor can fix this equines contracture of the ankle right before surgery?
Is this surgery easily done if you found out you have it after lengthening? My doctor in vietnam haven't mentioned this topic. But I heard he fixed it before.


There's also a doctor in Greece that does precice for 43k usd. On femurs with 8cm. So that may help. It will be my 2nd choice.

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Quote from: Beemer m3 on October 30, 2020, 07:07:41 AMSo you're saying my doctor can fix this equines contracture of the ankle right before surgery?
Is this surgery easily done if you found out you have it after lengthening? My doctor in vietnam haven't mentioned this topic. But I heard he fixed it before.


There's also a doctor in Greece that does precice for 43k usd. On femurs with 8cm. So that may help. It will be my 2nd choice.

There is a distinction between prevention and treatment . If your lengthening goal is 7cm, I would advise getting a gastrocnemius recession during the initial surgery . Prevention is always easier than treatment.

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Won't it stretch out on its own given enough time and stretching/weight bearing?  Or is there some point past which ballerina foot will never improve without medical intervention?

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I heard of a doctor that injects botox into calf muscle to prevent equines contracture of the ankle. Is injections good compare to lengthening of the achilles tendons better?

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Quote from: Medium Drink Of Water on October 30, 2020, 05:26:25 PMWon't it stretch out on its own given enough time and stretching/weight bearing?  Or is there some point past which ballerina foot will never improve without medical intervention?

It may or may not, depending on the severity and one’s dedication to Physical therapy.


As for Botox to decrease Calf tightness, I do it for select patient and so does Janet Conway my partner. It does tend to help

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You are saying I can run full speed after gaining 7cm with PT and afo? I saw my doctor had sum pics of strings attached to there feet to raise it up during Lon. Gives me some hope.

I heard lengthening the achilles tendon can bring a lot of pain is this true? Still need more info. But I heard some doctors don't like it.

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Hey dr,

When you say you’ve treated it, do you mean with a surgery or the patient doing stretches and standing overtime? I’m at 4cm distraction of tibia and my ballerina looks quite bad to me, angle looks about the same as wearing a 2 inch heel? I started noticing it as early as 2cm and it’s has gotten drastically worse although I reduced letting to 0.5 some days. My goal is 5cm but do you think I should stop at 4.5 or just go very slowly? Or recovering after lengthening is an option? I’ve seen a few cases that got better. I have only recently started using the walker as I had the thinnest nail and I was told not to weight bear although im only 44kg female.