In your opinion what is the best/safest LL method? I am reading that people who choose to do internal methods often experience knee pain. Why not go with the external method then? If I wanted to lengthen 5 cm on each of my femurs and tibias, and still be somewhat athletic, what method should I go for?
There aren't best methods really, it's only up to you to decide what you need. Internal devices mainly offer comfort and faster rehabilitation, while externals offer less-traumatic surgeries with less long-term complications, less surgeries, much cheaper costs and full weight bearing regardless of your weight. Say, you want to lengthen your tibias by 5 cm, here's how it looks like with both methods:
Internal: you'll be lengthening 2 months, the lengthening phase isn't much different from externals, as you'll severely limited in your movements. After another month or two, depending on your consolidation, you should be able to walk unaided and normal. So you can say the full recovery time with internals for 5 cm is 3-4 months. You'll want to remove the rods later on, but still.
External: you'll be lengthening 2 months, and you'll need another 3-4 months before you can remove the external device. So that's 5-6 months for 5 cm. Also keep in mind that while in externals even after the distraction phase you're still limited in your movement, clothings.
I guess it'll be fair to say that the overall rehabilition time is twice as long with externals. Like for 7.5 cm internally you'll need 5-6 months to start walking normally and with externals it'll be 10-11 months.
Quote from: exclide on February 03, 2015, 06:54:06 AMThere aren't best methods really, it's only up to you to decide what you need. Internal devices mainly offer comfort and faster rehabilitation, while externals offer less-traumatic surgeries with less long-term complications, less surgeries, much cheaper costs and full weight bearing regardless of your weight. Say, you want to lengthen your tibias by 5 cm, here's how it looks like with both methods:
Internal: you'll be lengthening 2 months, the lengthening phase isn't much different from externals, as you'll severely limited in your movements. After another month or two, depending on your consolidation, you should be able to walk unaided and normal. So you can say the full recovery time with internals for 5 cm is 3-4 months. You'll want to remove the rods later on, but still.
External: you'll be lengthening 2 months, and you'll need another 3-4 months before you can remove the external device. So that's 5-6 months for 5 cm. Also keep in mind that while in externals even after the distraction phase you're still limited in your movement, clothings.
I guess it'll be fair to say that the overall rehabilition time is twice as long with externals. Like for 7.5 cm internally you'll need 5-6 months to start walking normally and with externals it'll be 10-11 months.
with externals i could walk with walker from the night of the surgery, and i retained full mobility with walker until the 4 cm mark, when mobility became difficult at times due to knee contracture. still, i could sit at low places, reach down to take things,etc. Bagirov's frame is a modified device, so i retained full knee ROM because it is a very lean frame ( i could bend my knees back fully as there's no metal behind)
4 cm is done in 2 months, not 5 cm, and that is already having a considerable lengthening speed which is not advised by doctors (basically no follwing insructions)
but me and wannabegiant and maybe RGKey might be exceptional cases as the rest of the patients aboslutely hated externals..
Quote from: ItsMyLife on February 03, 2015, 06:58:53 AMwith externals i could walk with walker from the night of the surgery, and i retained full mobility with walker until the 4 cm mark, when mobility became difficult at times due to knee contracture. still, i could sit at low places, reach down to take things,etc. Bagirov's frame is a modified device, so i retained full knee ROM because it is a very lean frame ( i could bend my knees back fully as there's no metal behind)
4 cm is done in 2 months, not 5 cm, and that is already having a considerable lengthening speed which is not advised by doctors (basically no follwing insructions)
but me and wannabegiant and maybe RGKey might be exceptional cases as the rest of the patients aboslutely hated externals..
Well, you can walk with walkers with internals too, so I don't understand what you're trying to say. ROM isn't all that affected by tibial external lengthening, a whole different case is external femoral lengthening - which is, by the way, pretty much impossible to do bilaterally, which limits you to internals, if you want to lengthen your femurs.
The classic, standart lengthening rate is 1mm/day, so that's 60 mms or 6 cms in 2 months. I did 1.75mm/day on my femur.
Would like to pinch in and say I've heard only bad things about doing external femurs, almost everyone does internal when lengthening that part of the leg.
It's true that internal tibis have a high chance of giving you minor but permanent knee pain -that will be for the rest of your life so think about that.
So basically I'd say:
-for femurs do internals with a good doctor
-for tibia do external and lengthen a bit less than your femur surgery to cut down on time.
Uppland why u so greedy? U're 177, if u go Beyond 183 u Will regret it for the rest of your life
Quote from: Hallijah on February 03, 2015, 01:55:03 PMUppland why u so greedy? U're 177, if u go Beyond 183 u Will regret it for the rest of your life
I am 178 at my lowest and I am planning to do 6,5CM internal femurs in one or two years. Doing a lot of stretching and saving money right now.
Been studying my proportions and 186-7CM is the most I would aim for considering I often wear thick boots (it's cold and snowy here). If I also lengthened my arms 3CM I could reach 188-9CM after that I think my legs will be too long. So all in all I have a decent idea of how my proportions will look and I'm certain they will hold up for an extra 6-7CM.
I think it's a reasonable goal personally but perhaps you know something I don't?
Quote from: Hallijah on February 03, 2015, 01:55:03 PMUppland why u so greedy? U're 177, if u go Beyond 183 u Will regret it for the rest of your life
It makes sense considering he's from Sweden. His 177 is ours 173.
Quote from: exclide on February 03, 2015, 01:57:25 PMIt makes sense considering he's from Sweden. His 177 is ours 173.
Yes it's almost that bad unfortunately, I guess I feel like an 174CM guy in the states.
what is your opinion on doing 4 cm on tibia with a russian doctor or an indian doctor who was trained by doctor paley?
And do you think someone who lenghten his tibia of 4 cm will have to do femur to balance his biomechanic.
Do you know doctors (i want name) who are really competent but whose fees are sub 30 000 dollars?
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