Tibia lengthening with Dr. Rozbruch

Hi,

I had tibia lengthening surgery with Dr. Rozbruch on early July and just started lengthening today. To my surprise, the pain on Tibias post surgery were that bad at all, i only used one 5.5mm oxy 2 days post surgery. But after that I had another oxy in 6 hours and continue to use since I had to have pt session. I stayed at hospital for 4 days, for the first three days I didn’t rest well because of the Ac was set on extreme cold, thank god a nurse helped me to turn it on heat. Then I had 8 hours sleep that night. My legs were hooked up on this bending machine, it was used one and a half hour per leg per day.
I was awake during my surgery as I believe less sedation would be less harmful to my body. They used spinal block for anesthesia so I could feel my upper body during the surgery. The surgery took four hours and Dr. Rozbruch did cosmetic stitches so my wounds are very small. He corrected my lightly bowleg a bit. Overall, this tibia surgery was a huge success, I was able to get on long flight right after I get discharged from the hospital.
When I lay down and have ice bags over my tibias my pain level is around 0, it’s just stiff if I don’t move my legs every 2 hours. The problem is I can’t walk more than 4 steps while using the walker mainly because I’m afraid precise nail would break as it’s not full weight bearing. And it hurt so bad when I tried to walk since I don’t want to take any pain medicine if I don’t have to at this point. When I sit on the edge of bed my legs fall down, they hurt a lot for first few mins and I can feel them being swollen but actually they look fine, my foot were pretty swollen from the long flight though, it went away after I elevated my legs after I got home.

Damn you are brave for doing this awake.

All the best bro. Follow the motions and suceed.

Damn not many people can brag about having surgery while awake.

Did you choose internal precise for tibias becauae you wanted to lenghten at home? I heard from the interview withDr. Donghoon internal fixators are extremely complicated for tibias and LON or external are preferred

Thx. It was nothing actually.

I did some research on possible early arthritis caused by inserting rods through knee, only found  few papers related. Conclusion is that there are risks involved in which surgeon’s skill is an essential part. I ended up choosing precice2.2 because it hurts less than external fixator and internal method seems to be a more advanced development.
I will monitor my knee condition from now on to ensure if early arthritis become reality early intervention will be applied immediately. It’s the most I can do as I have to make compromise for my ends.

I have lengthened 3+mm and constantly felt my skin being stretched. Right foot falls more than left, it was like this since surgery. Currently I’m on 0.02mm x 4 per day, I’m thinking to buy an electric wheelchair so I could have more mobility when outside. Didn’t take oxy or Tylenol because pain has been manageable. Had really bad spasms two times, latter one lasted more than one hour, couldn’t move or do anything to help so I just waited it to go away. Cant have ice bags on tibias often as it may cause spasms.
Swelling has gone completely even if I dangle my legs more than one hour it’s not coming back.

My goal is to reach maximum lengthening that my tibias can handle without leaving long term side effect. Anyone lengthened more than 7cm on tibias and turned out fine?

Think donghoon had a patient who did 7 on tibs and runs like a champ. A few years after though. Check his channel, there's a video on it.

All the best for your journey. You have taken the first and keep up the good work so far bro. If you don't mind me asking how old are you? and what was your current height before the surgery?