Dear All,
I have been exploring methods of LL which can give an inch of lengthening with minimal down time. I have polled and met most of the surgeons and more or less know most things about their practices and LL techniques. some good and some not so good 
but the common theme was long downtime and high cost when compared with other cosmetic procedures due to artificially inflated cost of the lengthening nails. Anyway the purpose of this post is to start a debate on technique called leg lengthening via Transiliac method, although sparingly, by some surgeons..
In this approach generally bone cut is made in the iliac crust and surgeon makes an instant lengthening of approx. 2-3 cm and than fill the gap with some sort of bone graft and fix the two ends with long screws to hold it together. Generally surgery takes few hours and recovery is suppose to be quite fast.
Advantages:
- Inexpensive as there is no need for nailing.
- Patient is comfortable as there is not much pain as there are neither bulky frames not internal nails.
- Instant lengthening.
- Possibly Full mobility with in few days of surgery with the help of crutches (needs to be checked with the surgeon)
- Fast recovery bone is healed approx. in 2-3 months.
Risks and Limitations:
- Only suitable for certain demographics as provides only minimalist gains
- Risk of sciatic nerve injury due to instant lengthening of 2-3 cm
- Not many surgeons who practice this approach, if any. The last one i heard was a a surgeon called Patrick Mcally from Ireland who did so and has now passed away.
All thoughts are welcomed along with more research and view of surgeons/medical experts who are willing to contribute.
I can understand people's scepticism and comments like ''Troll post...'' .. ''too good to be true...'' But the purpose of this post was not to say this is a good method rather to instigate debate and do more research using all our combine resources.
A test group where 23 patients underwent LL to correct limb length discrepancies over 2 year period almost 2 decades ago.This method actually existed and those of you are interested can read about the results here: http://www.bjj.boneandjoint.org.uk/content/74-B/2/275.full.pdf
Based on the information i gathered i highlighted the pros and cons of this procedure in my Opening post. Please feel free to poll your surgeons or other pelvic surgeons and gather/share information here.
Quote from: Keep Growing on December 04, 2015, 09:08:41 PMhttp://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/02/africa/medicine-man-turns-frustration-into-big-opportunity/
Uppland, This does gives you 2-3 cm of lengthening and ticks all other boxes (cheap, short downtime, etc) but their is a significant risk of sciatic nerve injury as you are stretching it 2-3 cm in matter of hours.
Quote from: Infinity on December 04, 2015, 09:35:32 PMUppland, This does gives you 2-3 cm of lengthening and ticks all other boxes (cheap, short downtime, etc) but their is a significant risk of sciatic nerve injury as you are stretching it 2-3 cm in matter of hours.
I assume you are aware that transiliac lengthening does not touch spine and is not a complicated surgery with very fast bone regeneration due to adequate blood supply in that region. The key risk is nerve injury due to lengthening 2-3 cm during the surgery.
Quote from: treemonger on December 04, 2015, 10:38:53 PMHey Infinity, since you did this much research on pelvic lengthening, were you planning to have the procedure?
Another common theme in LL: going faster is slower, and cheaper becomes more expensive.
This surgery seems to defy that logic.
Yes, i am provided there is a respected surgeon out there who is still practising this technique and has results to show for. I would like to see his complication percentage risk of nerve injury cases.
Disclaimer: i already had one segment lengthened couple of years ago this is for my second procedure.
Also to keep in mind this surgery has limited lengthening scope and will appeal only to people who are looking to get about an inch (2-3 cm) of lengthening. As per the information i gathered max possible would be around 3 cm but i have been informed surgeons would probably lengthen somewhere between 2-3 cm.
Quote from: Ozymandias on December 05, 2015, 12:25:02 AM
Also, it looks that it has only been used for leg discrepancies (only one leg lengthened). Is it suitable for cosmetic bilateral lengthening?
All lengthening techniques are primarily developed and used for LL discrepancies, this one is no different.
It is a serious method but has its own limitations and risks but also advantages. For people who just want minimal quick lenghthening or just to even out proportions than it can be quite a useful method.
The main conundrum is finding an experienced surgeon who is practicing this method.
actually what he is telling you is that he is not capable of performing it 
. Very few doctors are able to do so and have experience to do this surgery. The bleeding and invasiveness of this surgery is comparatively smaller when compared with LL major surgery. Pls read up my earlier posts in this thread.
Ideally one can do one leg at time as downtime is almost negligible and there is no implant or clicking so the cost is minimal. Probably about 5k for each leg.
The main problem is finding a doctor who not only is willing to do so for cosmetic reasons but actually has experience with this type of lengthening. I did not managed to find one yet. Those who have experience are only doing for medical cases and those who dont have experience i wont go to them, even if they were willing to do it.
bumping this.
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