Dr Xia & Dr Li (Beijing China) Institute of External Fixation Technology

Here's the response and updated information from Beijing Institute of External Fixation Technology, headed by Dr Xia Hetao (Director) & Dr Roger Li (Honorary Consultant Surgeon). 
 
Note: please refer to our disclaimer about The Doctors Directory
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=55.0

Pricing

From 1 November 2015, the package price is adjusted to 25,000 Euros for 5-8 cm lengthening and 4 months hospital stay (full boarding), with additional charges at 1500 Euros/per extra cm. We require a deposit of 5,000 Euros to be paid first to secure a place and a surgery.


The cost of our service package is 25,000 Euros includes a (up to) 5-8 cm inches lengthening on both tibiae or femurs, inclusive of all the first two surgeries (the first surgery to put external frame and nails and 2nd surgery for removing the external frame), treatments and hospitalization for the entire treatment period (up to 4 months, two people to share), high speed internet, new wheelchair, all medicine and walking aids, plus regular meal (restaurant meal at extra cost). If any complication occurs during the procedure while you are in our hospital, we guarantee to treat it free of charge till the complication is completely settled.

If you would like to do more than 8 cm and stay extra time after the 4 month period, than a rate at 1,500 Euros per cm will be charged. We provide English translators for international patients and there are many patients from US, Canada, Japan, Denmark, India, etc. in our hospital receiving treatment at present.  If you want to do both tibiae and femurs lengthening, then, then two separate procedures will be taken and you need to wait at least 1 year in between to allow functional recovery of the limbs.  The price will double as you need to pay for separate packages.

How to pay:

The package price (e.g. 25,000 Euros) needs to be paid in two installments.  First you need to pay a deposit of 5,000 Euros to secure a place; then at your arrival in Beijing, you need to pay the rest of 20,000 Euros, at the time of admission.  Payment can be done in cash, traveler checks or bank transfer.  No credit card payment or personal check is accepted at present.  We can send you our bank details for you to set up a bank transfer arrangement with your home banks and you can transfer the fund once you are in Beijing, just before the surgery.

Amount of Lengthening

In regard to the lengthening surgery, we usually lengthen the tibiae for cosmetic purposes, as most of people with short stature have relatively short tibiae, and the lengthening of tibiae will make them look more even.  The surgery on tibiae is also relatively easy and risk free comparing to femurs (as there are a lot of muscles around it and special cares are needed to keep the patients comfortable during the lengthening).  In most of cases, 8-10 (3-4 inches) cm tibial lengthening is sufficient to satisfy the needs.

Timeline For Recovery

The time for hospitalization would be around 4-5 months for 5-6 cm lengthening depending on your body's recovery ability.  From 2014, we have developed a new method of osteotomy, in that the bone is cut in an oblique line using multiple pinholes.  The new method of osteotomy has eliminated potential risk of non-union or poor bone formation, we have performed more than 50 cases, all are successful.  After the planned lengthening (e.g. 8 cm) is achieved, the external fixator will be removed and at the same time your leg will be fixed by the internal fixator (intramedullary nail) through locking screws.  A few weeks after the second surgery, you can return to work and be discharged from the hospital.  At early stage of the first surgery and during the lengthening, you will need working aid to walk, but once the lengthening is finished and external fixator removed, then you can work free, but you should not do competitive sport for the next 12 months to allow bone to fully recover.  You can go back to normal life with the internal nails for approx. 1 year, and then you may remove the nails (this is a simple procedure and you only need to stay in hospital for around 10 days after the nails being taken out).  Added together, the total time needed for completion of the entire treatment would be around 12-16 months, but you can go back to work or normal life after 4-6 months, and resume full sport activities after 24 months.

There will be some scars along the pin tracts, which can be removed after the procedure if necessary by cosmetic surgery.  We could do so at a cost of about 1,500 Euros for removing all the major scars at the time of removing the intramedullary nails on both legs.  As far as the long term side effect is concerned, we did not predict any if the procedure is done correctly, as this is just like a fracture repair by tissue regeneration, we create a situation that stimulates your own growth potentials which has ceased early, so that we consider the LL procedure is a natural process, hence with less harmful consequences anticipated.

Our surgery team is headed and performed in person by Prof. He-Tao Xia, who is very experienced orthopaedic surgeon specialized in leg lengthening cosmetic surgery, who have carried out more than 1,800 cosmetic leg lengthening procedure with great success. Dr. Xia will explain everything clearly to patients, and we will sign an agreement with patient to clearly outline the responsibilities and risks of each party.

Summary of our clinical experience

Till now, we have performed leg lengthening surgery for more than 1,900 cases. Patients were from USA, Italy, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and all over China. Most of the patients are suffers of short stature and 80% of the patients have postgraduate degrees, aged between 14-52 years, (average age: 22.6 years). The height before surgery was between 117-175 cm (average 152 cm); the average increased height was 8.6 cm (3-33 cm). Among the patients, there are three cases of serious complications, bone nonunion 2 cases (1 case was caused by fast lengthening rate; another was due to diet problem, lack of nutrition), ankle joint deformity 1 case (the patient was 52 years old and has other medical conditions). All the three cases were treated by secondary surgery with satisfactory outcomes. Overall, 99% of the patients were very satisfied with the outcome of their treatment. At present, serious complications such as bone nonunion have been completely avoided by using Xia's leg-lengthening technique, only minor complications such as mild pinhole infection (in less than 0.5% patients) are occasionally seen and are dealt with easily.

It is not necessary to have a pre-surgery consultation and checks, as we can do this one go before the surgery when you are here in our hospital.  Please check if you meet the conditions for cosmetic leg lengthening on our website: http://www.leg-lengthening.com/advice.html and if you are, then you can decide a time and book your flight and let me know in 2-3 weeks advance, then we can arrange your hospitalization and treatment accordingly, we can also assist with your visa application and arrange your airport pickup (these are all included in the price of the package).   Of course, you can visit our hospital in Beijing first, to see in your own eyes and then decide from there.  Please let me know if you need more information.

For Chinese visa, please go to nearest Chinese embassy to apply for a tourist visa, and it is easy to get and you can stay for up to 3 months.  Once you are in China, we can help to extend the visa for you if needed.  Once you got the visa and booked the flight, please let me know so that we can arrange airport pickup, your hospital stay and surgery time accordingly.

Many interesting patients would always request to have one to one telephone consultation or speak to our in-patient.  Although we understand your feeling and concern, but it is not possible for us to give telephone consultation due to medical legal reason, and we have signed contract with every single patient that we are not in a position to dishcloth patient’s private information, let alone to allow strangers to talk to our patients.  We have tried our best to address the frequently asked questions and these can be found at our website under FAQs and Answers.  If you are still unsure and want to have a private visit prior to making up your mind, then you are welcome to visit our hospital for a one to one consultation with Dr. Xia and see the hospital facilities, and you may have a chance to talk to the patients in our hospital there.  For such visit, the cost is 500 Euros including consultation with Dr. Xia and guided hospital tour.  If you have decided to come to our hospital for a surgery within 3 months of the consultation, then the fee is refunded from the total package cost.

What kind of physical therapy is assigned or provided to the patient?
 
No special ones, patients shall do the walking following our instructions.


What maximum amount of lengthening do you recommend per segment, regarding patient safety? What is the daily rate of lengthening?
 
8 cm is pretty safe in our hand. The usual  daily rate of lengthening is 0.5-1 mm, this can be adjusted according to your healing by the doctors.

What is your opinion regarding the weightbearing of the patients?

Patients will need to do the weight bearing exercise daily from day one of surgery.

How often will you follow up with patients during lengthening?
 
Monthly r-ray and daily check by doctor when you are in hospital.


Don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you need further clarification.

All the best wishes

Contact Info
Dr. Roger Li, MD, PhD
Senior Consultant
Beijing Institute of External Fixation Technology
www.leg-lengthening.com
[email protected]

Wow, China's leg lengthening clinics have raised their prices at an alarming rate. Dr. Xia would be a great deal if you are a Chinese local. You'll pay about a third of the price that they advertise on their site.

Is anyone planning on going to China soon. I am strongly thinking about it!! I haven't seen a diary in awhile, are they still a solid option?

Hey time4all

I wish we could get more patient diaries but we are just startin up. We have to be patient.

My personal opinion about China is that it's too expensive now.
They absolutely get the job done and the care seems to be better than in India but with that price I'd rather save a little bit more and do internals with Dr Jamal.

It's also been reported that the IM-nail they use is of poor quality. A patient who lengthened his femurs with Dr Sarin did his tibia in China and he managed to bent his one nail so he had to go back to China and change it.
That scared the cr*p out of me.

The part where they charge 3 times more for foreigners makes me a little sick, but business is business and I think they have the greatest track record of all the doctors who perform LL.

Quote from: orlandoflorida on October 07, 2013, 01:59:41 PMApparently Dr Xia no longer does the surgery,  he is like a Director of the hospital who oversee things generally and trained several doctors who do the surgery.     

This has been true since 2007. I met with Dr. Xia once for my initial consultation (at my insistence) and that was the last I saw of him except seeing him walking by in the courtyard one other time. Dr. Li came to visit me twice during the five months I was there. He did (and I think he still does) spend most of his time in the UK.  Those two are really just figureheads at this point.  They haven't updated their website or sales pitch since 2007 except for the prices.

Dr. Aimin Peng is the surgeon there.  If there's a good argument to go to China, it's that nobody and I mean nobody does more LL surgeries than Dr. Peng.  That place was like a factory assembly line with multiple surgeries a day the whole time I was there.  Foreign patients get priority for morning surgeries, so if he's tired at the end of the day it's a Chinese patient who's paying the price.

You'd think the cost in China would depreciate after all these years since the introduction of the precise nail, internal methods and other advances, but sadly, it hasn't changed one bit.

Quote from: NBW on October 08, 2013, 10:18:55 AMYou'd think the cost in China would depreciate after all these years since the introduction of the precise nail, internal methods and other advances, but sadly, it hasn't changed one bit.

A major reason why they've been raising their prices is because the Chinese Yuan has been increasing in value relative to pretty much every other country's currency.

I paid 25000 USD for the operation in 2007. Adjusted for CNY appreciation/ USD depreciation, the current price would be 31000 USD. Now it's 33000 USD. So they have only raised their prices by 6% over the last 6 years when you take currency appreciation/depreciation out of the equation.

Has anyone else heard that the Chinese IM nails are of lesser quality? I have read a few diaries on old forum  and have never come across anyone saying this.

I think the price is reasonable considering how good there track record seems to be. They seem to be the place with the least amount of risks and the most experience.

@Sweden
How did he bend the nail? That is very concerning if there IM nails are of lesser quality than other places.

Quote from: Time4LL on October 08, 2013, 05:16:27 PMHas anyone else heard that the Chinese IM nails are of lesser quality? I have read a few diaries on old forum  and have never come across anyone saying this.

I think the price is reasonable considering how good there track record seems to be. They seem to be the place with the least amount of risks and the most experience.

@Sweden
How did he bend the nail? That is very concerning if there IM nails are of lesser quality than other places.

I know two Beijing patients who've had problems with the IM nail.  I don't think that the nails themselves were to blame in either case though.  Both times it had to do with the screws that attached the nail to the bone coming loose.  The first case was caught early by the doctors before the guy left the hospital; they did another operation to correct it and his departure had to be delayed for two weeks.  He later had some minor problems with the screws again, but nothing that required an additional surgery.  The second person did have to fly back to Beijing and get it fixed.

I never had a problem with my IM nails from Beijing, and I know two other patients who didn't have problems with theirs either.  The three of us who didn't have problems with the IM nail had really good bone growth the whole time we were there, and the two with the nail problems had less than stellar bone growth.  That might explain the reason for the problems, or it might just be a coincidence.

Still, I think it's a legitimate concern to have about their program.  If you're thinking of going there, you might ask them for more information about their IM nails and the screws they use, and why some people have been experiencing problems.