Quote from: TheRisingShorty on December 07, 2014, 06:29:29 AM
Chances of amputation or death is very slim to zero with a good surgeon. Deep infection, embolism and compartment syndrome can happen regardless of how much you lengthen, the latter two mostly happens after surgery. Non-union could be multifactorial and nerve damage could happen with higher lengthening amount. There have not been any reported amputation cases in forum patient diaries but I have read studies that exclude some patients from the study because their outcome was amputation. They don't state the reason why they were amputated but these patients did have pre-existing trauma before fixation and some resulted in osteomyelitis and non-union. Compartment syndrome, complex non-union and osteomyelitis resulting to amputation have been reported in studies.
Just remember that these are worst possible outcomes to LL, although rare with a good surgeon. Judging from some of the posts in this forum, it seems that some prospective LL'ers take this surgery very lightly and believe that they're immune to very serious complications. It's not a good idea to be overconfident. You must consider and accept the worst case scenario before LL. A forum member did experience a life threatening condition a day after his surgery and he immediately had to be shifted to the ICU unit, despite having surgery with the best. His experience was horrifying and seriously made me reconsider LL. It was an eye opener. I believe that majority of serious complications related to LL will not be reported in LL forums and only a very few percent of LL patients do have diaries.
Questions rising shorty,
1. Why will non-union lead to amputation? Worst case let it stay unconsolidated, walk with crutches all your life.
2. Are there sudden "signs" of these dangers: nerve damage and compartment syndrome? So that you can stop lengthening in a timely fashion? It's not like you go to bed doing 1mm and the next morning it's over, right?
3. You seem to have a tone of someone prepared for this kind of stuff? Could you have really lived through if you faced a leg amputation? I don't understand how someone who feels so unhappy being short and considers a ridiculously crazy procedure can accept such an adverse outcome. No offense, just curious.