6 cm. The insertion of the nail was in top of the knee, and there isn't any problem with the knees.
More than 1 year sure i need for consolidation. 1'5 years more or less .
You are aware than normally it takes 7-9 months for tibia to consolidate and this is the time it would take with an external device? How did you manage to handle being 18 months without consolidation? When did you start walking with crutches? When did you start walking without crutches and when for running/sports?
i had consolidation but not full consolidation. That is more time that 7 or 9 months.
Quote from: paco1 on May 29, 2017, 06:57:24 PM6 cm. The insertion of the nail was in top of the knee, and there isn't any problem with the knees.
More than 1 year sure i need for consolidation. 1'5 years more or less .
How do you insert the nail in both internal femur (not antegrade) and internal tibias without hurting the knee?
For example how does the insertion of the fitbone and precise nail in femurs with the knee approach avoid damaging the patellar tendon? Isn't it blocking the insertion of the nail? I have seen some videos and it does seem that they just go through the tendom... Is that so or they just pick a side and do near it without touching the tendom? 
Here you have one link how it is.
Instrumentación suprarrotuliana para clavo tibial Expert.
Quote from: paco1 on May 29, 2017, 04:41:00 PMExternal only is very bad idea. Because you have to stay with the fixator a lot of time. For 6cm more than 1 year.
I had my surgery my first leg in 18th on february and the second in july. And in 8 on november i started to study one course.
Nobody suspect nothing.
That's not true.
I lengthened 7.5 cm and my bones were consolidated completely 10 months after although I kept the monorails for 1 month more for sure.
Also, tibia LL always looks better than femur LL and the feet looks longer while with longer femurs you look bulkier but not so tall compared to tibias.
Finally, breaking 2 bones means nothing. Fibula cut is very easy and if it is fixated with a screw to tibia it won't cause any problem at all. Even a non alignment in fibula (which can be fixed of course) still won't cause any real problem, all doctors agree to that.
So breaking 2 bones instead of one really isn't of any importance.
@onemorefoot, I think the surgery lasts about 3-4 hours for Ilizarov. I had monorails and my doctor needed about 2.5 hours, Ilizarov needs more time.
But it is a less risky surgery than drilling through bones. The only risk is infection but it can easily prevented with antibiotics because it is on the skin near the pins.
In internals infection is rare but if it happens it can lead to infection inside of the bone which is very dangerous.
So for many reasons external tibias is the best solution for long term results.
And I think that be less comfortable for up to a year is less important than multiple surgeries, maybe more long term effects and of course plenty of money more, as internal femurs are ridiculousky expensive.
You can do external LL with a respectable doctor with about 20k euros while for internals you need at least twice these money.
So external tibias has also a much better vfm .
The law says 1.5 to 2 months per cm so for 6 cm, it can be as early as 8-9 months to 12 months or more. Healing is patient dependent and varies due to many factors age gender smoking. There is higher non union than in femurs. The advantage with externals and Newer internal nails Precise and Fitbone is that they can go backwards to reduce the gap and compress the bone if necessary.
Quote from: LLSouthAmerica on May 29, 2017, 09:48:54 PMThe law says 1.5 to 2 months per cm so for 6 cm, it can be as early as 8-9 months to 12 months or more. Healing is patient dependent and varies due to many factors age gender smoking. There is higher non union than in femurs. The advantage with externals and Newer internal nails Precise and Fitbone is that they can go backwards to reduce the gap and compress the bone if necessary.
You are right. Most patients need about 1.5 month for 1cm in tibias lengthening so for 6cm someone needs about 9 months but not a year as it was mentioned.
And also, nonunions are more often in tibias than femurs but more often also in internals than externals.
Comparing an internal nail in femurs (especially albizzia nails) to external only tibias I am sure that non alignment is more probable in the first.
Anyway, both are the best options for tibias and femurs.
I think that someone who wants only one LL and not more than 6 cm lengthening should better do external tibias as it is a less invasive surgery, much cheaper, better aesthetically (unless you already have very ling tibias which is very rare) and with better long term results if everything goes fine.
But if someone wants to do femurs instead of tibias, then internal nails is a very good option.
Quote from: The Kaiser on May 28, 2017, 12:14:11 AMWhat about someone don't know this kind of surgeries exist? what do you think their reaction will be? just curious.
I did the full 8- Only one person who was in the medical field and one person who knew about and wanted the surgery themselves and saw me still bed bound guessed what it was. Everyone else, even those who saw me crippled had no idea. Since there was no hiding it I even played a guessing game with my roomies and answered their questions for hints and they couldn't guess lol. To those who never saw me bed bound, but either slightly crippled or fine they had no idea, although a few were floored by the height change.
They do not notice your longer femurs? You were 1.72m so your femurs was more or less 46cm. You did 8cm so now you have 54cm. That equals the femurs of someone that is 2.01m but you are 1.8m. That is more than a 20 cm difference.
I'm 1.66 and I intend to lengthen only 5cm. Even so I will be 1.71 with the femurs of someone that is 1.84. That is a 13cm more. I might just do 4.5 cm and then use 2cm insoles. Average in my country is only 1.74 
More important than how soon you start walking is how does it feel. The ultimate goal in the ling term is to do everythinf without even remembering that leg lenghtening was made.
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