In our many years of practice, we have seen many patients who were not happy with their appearance, leading to psychological complexes called Height Dysphoria or Height Neurosis. According to our understanding, this syndrome has no direct correlation with height; that is to say, there are many short people who don't have Height Dysphoria. The important factor is with whom people compare themselves, and how they estimate themselves in comparison. Height standards often vary nationally. For example, short people in Denmark may not feel themselves short in Vietnam. We also hear many anecdotal stories of people deciding on limb lengthening by just comparing themselves to their immediate environment, such as a man came all the way from Australia to increase his height by 6 cm. When Dr. Mirzoyan asked him what his main reason was, he answered that he worked at a big slaughterhouse and his job was to differentiate types of sheep bodies and to hang them on meat hooks at different heights.
Our practice illustrates that frequently most of our male patients are admitted for height increase, whereas female patients more often seek improvement of tibia/femur proportion.
In our practice, a staff psychologist is involved in evaluation of patients' motivations and decisions regarding height increase.
Complication rate is the most frequent concern. We never underestimate the fact that in cases of aesthetic surgery, we are operating on healthy adults, and the price of complication for aesthetic and orthopedic patients is quite different. This is why we recommend the most reliable methods with the fewest complications, even though they may not be the most comfortable and least time consuming.
Our complication rate is low. In many years of practice, we have had sporadic complications, such as:
- Premature consolidation in the process of lengthening
- Delay of callus formation
- Callus malunion after early frame removal
- Broken wires or pins
- Metallosis (individual allergy for metal)
- Stiffness of joint ROM
These sporadic cases can be considered obstacles rather than real complications, because they did not affect results. A serious issue is the delay of restoration of joint ROM and gait.
To prevent stiffness of joint ROM and maintain patients' physical activity, physical therapy is essential. Our medical cost includes a regular course of physical therapy: every day (6 days a week) we provide one hour of training with a physical therapist. If patients wish, the course can be more intensive for an additional cost.
However, if patients are not willing to do physical therapy, leading to stiffness of joint ROM, we offer an additional surgery for an additional charge to lengthen the Achilles tendon for tibia lengthening, and quadriceps muscles for femur lengthening.
Among serious complications, we have had one infected implant, one nerve injury and one severe stiffness of joint ROM (Patella Baja). These complications required an additional surgery and treatment.
In case of significant complications, a patient pays only for hospital and accommodation fees. We provide comprehensive treatment of the mentioned complication with no additional charge.
We strongly recommend that all of our patients make a serious decision to completely dedicate the necessary time for aesthetic limb lengthening from the beginning to a successful end.
The cost of our Center for limb lengthening covers both medical and accommodation expenses. Cost/quality ratio of our Center is pretty reasonable; patients from more than 20 countries have chosen our service. Price and duration depend on the amount of lengthening.
In our practice we have increased height by 16 cm (6.2 inches) for cosmetic reasons. This was indicated because of obvious disproportion between the patient's body/arms and legs.
Theoretically, there is no limit. For patients with dwarfism (achondroplasia) we have done lengthening up to 32 cm in two periods, and at the Ilizarov Center the record case is 58 cm. It is important to estimate comprehensively how much lengthening and from which segment any patient ultimately needs to be proportional after the treatment. Proportion between the tibia (lower leg) and the femur (upper leg) is also very important.
Frequently patients ask us to lengthen only tibias by 7 and more cm. We never recommend this unless patients assure us that they will do femur lengthening as well in the near future.
Our first priority is the final aesthetic result, and, more important, biomechanical correctness.
The incision we make for a bone cut is, as a rule, 5-10 mm long, so it hardly can be seen after it heals. Spots of scar tissue are left from pins and especially half pins. In a majority of cases, they are insignificant and do not bother patients.
In some cases, we suggest the use of ointments that help to erode the scars and help healthy skin to regenerate. New technologies of skin shaping by laser also can be helpful.
Important: scar tissue depends not only on surgical technique, but also on individual characteristics of the patients' skin.
It is a time consuming process. Simultaneous lengthening of both tibias (1mm per day) takes about a month per each cm of lengthening. This includes both lengthening and fixation periods.
Cross lateral two stage tibia/femur lengthening takes longer, because of the necessary rehab period to restore ROM of knee and ankle joints between lengthening steps. 10 cm lengthening, for example, takes about 12 months, including two sets and rehabilitation.
These durations refer to the classical Ilizarov method. Taking into account the long lasting period of this method, we offer lengthening over the nail method (LON). The aim of this method is that lengthening is done by Ilizarov frames, the fixation of callus – by nails, applied either with the device simultaneously or after leg lengthening. This reduces the necessary application time of external fixators more than twice. The disadvantage of this method is the risk of deep infections, as well as the volume of surgery. To know more about this method, please visit here.
Important: the duration of fixation, rehabilitation and the whole procedure depends very much on a patient's motivation, willingness to be physically active, and cooperation with the physical therapist.
The lengthening is usually done by a patient after training by a doctor.
The classical Ilizarov method anticipates no blood loss and there is no need for blood transfusion. In case of the LON method, due to the necessity of reaming the bone marrow, blood transfusion can be done, depending on blood tests, in less than 10% cases.