is Achilles tendon lengthening harmful?

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will the Achilles tendon be weaker after surgery?

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A lot. This surgery is really devastating for the push off power and the feeling of your legs.
It was the biggest mistake of my life to trust my ex doctor and do it to fix bf.
Thanks god most of the feeling is back after the achilles shortening surgery I did 3 months before and the power start to come again but even now I won't be 100% as if I haven't done atl. But something like 85-90% is possible.
People who did atl won't have more than 50-60% of the push off power they had before this surgery. This is what no doctor says and that's why many people are doing it, without knowing the truth.

Atl is much more devastating than LL itself. Please avoid it at all costs.

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sounds like, Achilleslengthening.is an absolutely wrong idea

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Quote from: Body Builder on July 12, 2017, 05:52:39 PMA lot. This surgery is really devastating for the push off power and the feeling of your legs.
It was the biggest mistake of my life to trust my ex doctor and do it to fix bf.
Thanks god most of the feeling is back after the achilles shortening surgery I did 3 months before and the power start to come again but even now I won't be 100% as if I haven't done atl. But something like 85-90% is possible.
People who did atl won't have more than 50-60% of the push off power they had before this surgery. This is what no doctor says and that's why many people are doing it, without knowing the truth.

Atl is much more devastating than LL itself. Please avoid it at all costs.

Hey Body Builder
How about released IT band in Femur?
Is it a disaster too?
Why Palet and Dr.M did it?

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Quote from: goodlucktomylegs on July 14, 2017, 03:49:34 PMHey Body Builder
How about released IT band in Femur?
Is it a disaster too?
Why Palet and Dr.M did it?

I don't know the exact consequenses of IT release but having a little more unstable knee (althought I don't think it really causes knee unstability) is in no way so critical as having a permanent unstability and weakness is the base of your leg which is responsible for doing any movement (walking, running, jumping).
I don't think that IT release is something which causes real problems but I really don't know.
But atl is so critical that you can lose almost all the athletic abilities that involves legs after doing it.
The difference in push off power is from 30% to not even walking properly ever again if doctor overlengthens much the tendon.
My push off power in my left leg was maybe less than 50% compared to my preatl condition (my right leg was about 70% as the tendon was lemgthened a little) and although I could walked normal, jumping or running fast was almost impossible.
Shortening surgery really works though and I am lucky to have found a doctor to do it to me (most doctors really don't know   about tendons except from ruprures!)  but lengthening a healthy tendon only to shortening it again (with another surgery) is really stupid when you can avoid any surgery at your tendons.

So in a few words, avoid atl no matter what!!

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Hey body builder.
Is there a place to read about your experience? Meaning tibia lengthening and everything.
If no, could u share in few words the details of your lengthening?
And about ATL. You seem the be against it, do u could have an alternative way to repair ballerina foot u know in hindsight?
Which method of ATL you have done?
Thanks

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Quote from: limby101 on July 14, 2017, 09:26:28 PMHey body builder.
Is there a place to read about your experience? Meaning tibia lengthening and everything.
If no, could u share in few words the details of your lengthening?
And about ATL. You seem the be against it, do u could have an alternative way to repair ballerina foot u know in hindsight?
Which method of ATL you have done?
Thanks

In the old forum I had a diary with my LL surgery and atl which followed some months after. I had at lengthening with z plasty method.
The same method my new dr used for tendon shortening which I did almost 3 months before.

The only real solution to bf is to not let it become massive and you can do it with slow (0.66mm per day max) and not more than your body tolerates (usually less than 6.5 cm in tibias)lengthening.
But even if you have massive bf like I did, the solution is walking, pt and much stretching.
In almost all cases after some months your heels will touch the ground and even if not, trust me it is better to have 2-3cm bf and wear shoes with 2-3cm lifts to walk completely normal than walking with a foot without bf but weak and unstable that doesn't let you do almost nothing, except walking and not in all cases, normally.

When I have the final results of at shortening, in about 9 months from now, I'll write about this surgery and how much it works.
Until now my left leg is way better than before, my right is a little better (it was already better than my left one but still it may wasn't shorten as much as it should, I'll see it better in the next months) and generally I trully believe that if the dr gives again the right tendon length (the one tendons had before atl) then the problems of atl are almost completely irreversible.
But it is not easy to measure the exact length the tendon had and that's why this surgery is tricky. Also, it needs a long rehabilitation, I needed more than 2 months to walk with shoes and drive again which is not so little.

Anyway, atl is something noone should do as the result is much more devastating than having bf.
At shortening helps a lot from what I see but it is not something easy as maybe even after it the tendon remains longer than it should, it has a long rehabilitation time and very few doctors do it.
I am maybe the first patient in the world that did at shortening after atl (and not some tendon elongation that happened after at rupture).
So don't let any moron dr mess with your tendons. Things are much more hard and risky than lengthening some bones.

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Bodybuilder,
Do you have any thoughts on gastrocnemius lengthening vs ATL? Was gastroc. lengthening ever proposed as an alternative

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I don't understand:
Dr. Cattani, one of the most experienced doctors (does LL and Ilizarov since the end of the 80's, probably has seen all kinds of bones, tendons, pathologies, patients' age, outcomes, etc), says Achilles tendon lenghtening is generally necessary after 4 cm of tibias lengthening. For CLL furthermore he does only tibias, he his "even more" specialist in tibias and ATL (he finds aesthetically disgusting lenghtening of femurs maybe because specially in shorts or nked we seem to have the knee too close to the ground).
He even foresees that possibility in the "calender" and travels of the patient.
We also know that several times this is indeed what other doctors do even before the end of lenghtening and when they didn't previously tell you in the consultation or their websites (some also put it on the price "menu" of all clinical procedures but don't say tendon extension may be related to LL). So, to make things worst, they charge it separately by surprise, contrarily to Cattani that either puts it already included or separates price in two and tells you before LL (tendon extension: 5.000 euros).

I think if we really want to help each other we need to confirm our sources, make a bit of information research, don't take our individual experience and our doctor as medical science "law" applying in all cases, and be a bit humble. Orthopaedic doctors in my country study 6 (degree) + 4 (sector specialist) + 4 years (surgery) before performing surgeries "alone". And with Cattani he was already a surgeon before using Ilizarov and then more than around at least 32 years with Ilizarov's techniques and its developments as well as other more recent nail techniques. He surely know better than us....

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Quote from: zaozari on November 14, 2021, 08:33:39 AMI don't understand:
Dr. Cattani, one of the most experienced doctors (does LL and Ilizarov since the end of the 80's, probably has seen all kinds of bones, tendons, pathologies, patients' age, outcomes, etc), says Achilles tendon lenghtening is generally necessary after 4 cm of tibias lengthening. For CLL furthermore he does only tibias, he his "even more" specialist in tibias and ATL (he finds aesthetically disgusting lenghtening of femurs maybe because specially in shorts or nked we seem to have the knee too close to the ground).
He even foresees that possibility in the "calender" and travels of the patient.
We also know that several times this is indeed what other doctors do even before the end of lenghtening and when they didn't previously tell you when in the consultation or their websites (some also put it on the price "menu" of all clinical procedures but don't say tendon extension may be related to LL). And to make things worst, they charge it separately, contrarily to Cattani that either puts it already included or separates price in two: LL and tendon extension (5.000 euros).

I think if we really want to help each other we need to confirm our sources, make a bit of information research and be a bit humble. Orthopaedic doctors i my country study 6 + 4 + 4 years before performing surgeries "alone". And with Cattani he was already a surgeon before using Ilizarov and then more than around at least 32 with Ilizarov's techniques and its developments as well as other more recent nail techniques

Ex LL tbias here, the bodybuilder guys is right never mess with Achille's tendon no matter what. I never had big problem with bf during LL because my distraction phase was in 6 months. Even at 7cm both of my feet still touch the ground entirely, by slowing extend the bone gap my bone callus was in perfect condition too. So don't rush, go as slow as you can