Height Lengthening Surgery with Ilizarov Method
Two very different people sometimes sit in the same chair in my OPD and use the same words: "Doctor, I want my leg lengthened." The first is a 16-year-old boy whose right leg is 5 cm shorter than the left after a childhood infection of the hip. He limps, his back aches, and he wears a thick sole on one shoe. The second is a healthy 24-year-old man, 158 cm tall, who has seen videos of "height increase surgery" and wants to be 165 cm. (Neither is a real patient. Both are common.) The operation used for both may be similar. The reasons, the risks and the decision are not. This article explains how limb lengthening works, what it involves, and why I discuss these two situations very differently. How bone can be lengthened Limb lengthening is based on a principle described by the Russian surgeon Gavriil Ilizarov, called distraction osteogenesis . In simple terms: Osteotomy. The bone is carefully cut, usually through a small incision, while protecting its bloo...