I am in the final stages of deciding which surgeon I will have the femur lengthening procedure with.
I'm 5 feet tall and I have a congenital back problem that made me so short. It's called Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda. It never stopped me from practically anything, I was always very active and sportsy, but unfortunately very short. Im 39 yo and not concerned with the loss of athletic ability tbh...
My biggest concern is with complications in lengthening the femur (thigh bone), which apparently is more complicated than lengthening the tibia. As the femur is a somewhat curved and arched bone - unlike the tibia - there can be an unwanted change in axis between hip and knee.
Another additional complication is about body proportion. Due to the disease, my trunk is already much smaller than my legs, so in fact I would stretch the femur - 6 cm at most.
Im gonna try to insert a image /sketch of a preview I made but not sure how yet
Thanks, had no idea femur was safer. Guess im calmer now.
Still cant upload any pictures - message error from forum: The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator
Uploaded it (my body proportions) to a third party site: https://postimg.cc/Mf0t0NYp
Been reading a lot since I first posted here and some doubts arose.
Should I start exercising more and doing a lot of stretching in my legs to prepare for surgery?
Another question: my doctor said he would use the monolateral fixator technique for the femur. Does this technique leave a perpetual intramedullary nail in your leg?
In the Limb Lengthening Methods page here on the forum the LON method is explained as:
"Lengthening Over Nails combines a ring fixator for lengthening and a regular intramedullary nail... Once the bones are fully consolidated, another operation is needed to remove the nails along with a week’s bed rest for the bones to heal from nail removal."
So there's definitely a nail, dont know if it is pulled or if it remains. It depends on the doctor?
Im gonna talk to my doctor again, but from what we talked im getting this one: https://www.limblength.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Art_Tx-ExFix-Monolateral-Fixator-Before-Femur-Lengthening.jpg.webp
I guess there's no intramedullary nail, but im kinda confused! Thanks !
> Plus with femurs, you have no choice but to do it with internal nails
So there's no femur surgery without internal nails?
Yeah, so I had another chat with my Doctor and he recommended going with LON with titanium nails. I even got him to tell me which companies made the fixators and nails, and there you all go:
NAILS - this one: https://www.biomecanica.com.br/solucoes-stars-orion-sp-femur/
FIXATORS - this one: https://www.selaz.com.br/fixador-externo-genesis/
The precise method is way too expensive and not really available here where I live.
Not sure why LON would be such an awful option, apparently most doctors use this method for femur lengthtening.
thanks everyone for all the replies!
The day after tomorrow I have another appointment with a third Doctor. But I suspect he also does LON only. It's inevitable, apparently where I live it's the most widespread method and the method surgeons are most experienced.
Also, doing the tibias, in my case, is out of the question.
Doing it outside my country is too much of a risk. I wouldnt take it.
Guess Ill take my chances with LON, but let's see how the third appointment goes.
People are losing their minds here... Let's get back to topic!
The second doctor I consulted gave me the estimate budget for the femur lengthening.
As I said, I already have a shorter femur than usual and I'm going to do the femur because my tibia is already too long compared to the rest of my body.
He's written on the service budget "Stretching with intramedullary nail with a retrograde entry through the knee". Translated as best as I could LOL
So in the end it's really the LON on the femur with intramedullary nails.
Final cost of USD 28k, 2 months physiotherapy included. Also included here is the 2nd surgery to remove the titanium nails from inside the femurs.
Gonna think about while I await consultation with the 3rd Doctor
Talked to a new doctor the day before yesterday
He suggested that I did the femur stretch one leg at a time so I wouldn't need a wheelchair for the recovery period.
I found it strange, because I would have one leg longer than the other for a period. It is common?
Or most people do both femurs at once?
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