Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Leg Lengthening Surgery: Is It Worth The Trouble?

By G. Tan


Forget diet, forget HGH, exercise, increase height programs, massage, or any other uncertain or marginal grow taller methods out there. The only surefire technique to becoming taller is leg lengthening surgery. This is the only method that will guarantee you'll get taller. However, the process is long, difficult, extremely painful, expensive, and the risk of possible complications is high.

What is leg lengthening surgery?

Leg lengthening surgery is a surgery where the surgeon breaks your shin bones (yes, he really breaks your bones in half) and inserts a telescoping rod. The rods then slowly pulls the bones apart as brand-new bone, nerves, blood vessels, muscle, and skin grow and fills up the gap.

The rods pull the bones about one mm each day. It is pulled apart slow enough so that brand-new bone continues to grow, but quickly enough that it does not heal completely. The entire lengthening process takes about three months followed by three to six months of demanding physical therapy.

Recovery and pain management

The entire leg lengthening surgery procedure is very painful so proper pain management is necessary. Anti-inflammatory drugs slow bone growth so the kind of pain medication you can take is limited. This means that you have to endure the whole process with minimum pain medicine.

Because of minimal pain medicine, physical therapy is very painful, to the point where patients may quit. However, omitting it might extend recovery by two or three times the normal period of 3 to 6 months. It could also prevent the bone from strengthening enough so it may break soon after.

Getting adequate sleep is essential to bone growth and recovery but will be a problem because of the pain and discomfort. Sleeping pills may work initially but they are not safe and gradually will stop working.

Risks and complications

Just like any surgical procedure, there are significant risks. This risk is rather high for a leg lengthening surgery at about 25 %. Potential risks include: bone infection, injury to nerves/blood vessels, injury to muscles/tendons, poor bone healing, and unequal lengthening.

But contrary to a lot of the hype, major long term complications are not common. Some centers claim 0 % long term negative effects and insist the procedure is safe.

So should I get leg lengthening surgery or what?

Leg lengthening costs around $85,000 in the US but substantially less abroad. You can get it for around $15,000 ~$30,000 in China, Russia, Egypt, or Brazil. India is a deal at $10,000. But would you actually go to India or Egypt, or even China for a major, life altering procedure such as this? Also, you will most likely need one year of expenses because you will most likely be unproductive and be unable to work throughout this time.

Even if you have the cash, you are talking one year of bed and wheelchair ridden, extremely painful, unproductive time. However, 3 inches to a short person is a dream come true.

So if you have $100,000, can waste a year, are ready to brave severe pain and discomfort, can deal with agonizing physical therapy and recovery, are ready to risk the complications and possible long term damage, then go for leg lengthening surgery! 3 inches really is a lot and will do wonders for your appearance and confidence.




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