Bone lengthening surgeries are performed on patients with congenital or acquired bone shortness. Lengthening surgeries are performed in patients with congenital shortness, whose height after growth is below 150 cm for male patients and below 145 cm for female patients, and in patients with acquired shortness, where one extremity is 2 cm or more shorter than the other.
Lengthening surgeries are performed. Like deformity surgeries, it can be performed with devices applied externally (from the outside), external-internal together, or only internally (from the inside).
Lengthening with external fixator;
Height extension with an external fixator is a method in which we start lengthening the patient 7-10 days after the surgery, with a device placed on the short bone of the patient (Figure 1). In this method, after the patient learns how to use the fixator, the patient will increase the height by an average of 1 mm per day as prescribed. The advantages of this method include the fact that the method can be controlled from the outside after the surgery, the device can be removed when the lengthening is completed and there is no implant left in the patient's body. The disadvantages are that the patient lives with this device for a long time depending on the amount to be lengthened, the schanz (pin) that attaches the device to the bone. ) infection at the soft tissue entry point, joint contractures in the upper and lower joints of the bone where we place this device.
Extension with the Combined Method;
This method is a method that shortens the duration of the fixator stay in the patient's body. In this method, an implant is placed in the inner part of the patient's bone (medulla) and an external fixator is placed from the outside (Figure 2). In this method, the patient is placed with the help of an external fixator placed from outside. When the extension is completed, the patient is taken back to the operating room where the implant inside is fixed and the fixator is removed. The advantage of this method is that the patient does not have to live with the fixator until the union tissue in the extended area is formed, and complications related to the fixator are reduced. The method is compared to lengthening only with an external fixator. Surgery is technically a more difficult method.
Fully internal lengthening with implants; Lengthening with an Extending Magnetic Nail;
In this method, the patient leaves the operating room after the lengthening surgery without a device outside his body (Figure 3), thus he does not experience any complications related to the external fixator. The lengthening is done with a device that creates an external magnetic field, 1 mm every day (Figure 4). The advantage of this method is that there is no external device, the patient can easily make upper and lower joint movements, and the joint contractures we see in lengthenings made using a fixator are not seen in this method. With the device, the patient can bear 20% weight on his foot with double crutches during the lengthening and subsequent union period.
No matter what method is used, the patient may need physical therapy after surgery.
Who is suitable for this operation?
- Male patients whose height is 150 cm and below
- Female patients whose height is 140 cm and below
- People with leg inequalities
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