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Limb Lengthening Side Effects, Complications And Risks
Every year, thousands of people undergo limb-lengthening surgeries to become taller and the demand is higher than ever. Thanks to the newly developed technologies and under the guidance of an experienced doctor, it is possible to safely achieve height gain by limb lengthening. However, as we all know, it is one of the most serious and invasive procedures among all cosmetic treatments, and several things may go wrong. In this article, we will try to cover most of the possible complications, side effects, and risks of height-increase surgery procedures. We will mainly discuss limb lengthening side effects, complications, and risks encountered in the POST-surgery period, supposing that the surgery has been performed successfully.
Limb Lengthening Side effects
1-Pain
The main and most common side effect of this surgery is pain, which is quite natural. All of our patients experience varying degrees of pain at least at some point in their procedure. As you probably know, the bone is cut with special tools during bone lengthening surgery. This is called an osteotomy. It is a major cause of pain, especially in the first few days after surgery.
If the applied surgery method involves external fixation; such as Holyfix, Ilizarov, or LON, then there are metal pins used to attach the fixator to the leg. These pins pierce the soft tissue and go through the bone, and the damage caused to the soft tissue also causes pain. These two kinds of pain go away or at least subside after approximately 1-3 weeks from the surgery.
Then, there is another kind of pain, which begins to show itself when patients reach a certain amount of bone lengthening. This type of pain is caused by the nerves being stretched and experiencing high tension. For some people, it may happen when the patient reaches 4-5 cm lengthening, and for others, it may happen after 6 cm or 7 cm of lengthening. To reduce the tension in the legs, the muscles of the legs have to be trained and adjust themselves to the new length of the bones. It can only be achieved by physiotherapy sessions and stretching exercises. If these are not done, the tension will remain and so will the pain and the limitations of movement.
2-Swelling
It is quite typical to see your legs and feet to be swollen, right after you wake up from your limb-lengthening surgery. This is due to edema, which is our body’s natural reaction to surgical injuries. The swelling of the legs and feet reduces significantly in approximately 10-15 days after surgery and disappears over time. This symptom is nothing to worry about.
3-Being Unable to Extend or Fully Move Limb or Joint
It mainly happens due to the daily stretching of the bones. We see our patients having difficulties moving their knees as they wish, and the limitation increases as they make progress with their bone lengthening. You may prevent this symptom from becoming worse, by exercising and physiotherapy, and try to be as physically active as possible throughout the day. Too much rigidity, sitting, or lying in bed will do no good for a limb-lengthening patient.
Complications
1-Infection
Infection is some of the possible complications when external fixation is involved. Here, we are mainly speaking about methods such as Ilizarov, Holyfix, and LON. The pin sites, where the pins enter the skin, are in the form of circular openings. These are covered with bandages treated with antiseptics, right after the surgery. It is very important to change these bandages regularly and treat the wounds with antiseptics to avoid infection.
However, approximately 2-3 patients out of 10 patients get an infection. It is not difficult to find out you have an infection. The typical symptoms are redness, swelling, and increased pain at the pin sites, as well as yellow pus and discharge. It takes some time for the surface infection to turn into something serious, but patients must inform their doctors as soon as they find out there is something wrong with the pin sites. It is quite treatable with oral antibiotics combined with local application of antiseptics in a short period, usually in 1 week or so.
It should be noted that for the patients who undergo Precice 2 or Stryde surgery, we don’t see infection cases because there is simply nowhere to get an infection. What we mean by that is after the intramedullary nails are implanted, the cuts are stitched. This is one of the advantages of internal methods over other limb-lengthening methods with external fixation.
2-Slow Union/Non-Union of the Bones
It is when the bones take a longer time to heal and consolidate or refuse to heal at all. The possibility is higher when the patient's age is more. For example, the bones of a patient in his mid-40s are more likely to consolidate more slowly than a patient in his 20s.
Another significant factor that deteriorates bone consolidation speed is smoking. According to some scientific research, smoking increases the total recovery time by up to 3-4 times. For this reason, we don’t accept cigarette-smoking patients unless they give up smoking months before their surgery.
There is one more factor affecting the bone healing process speed, which is the amount of bone distraction. A bone distracted by 7-8 cm takes more time to heal compared to a bone lengthened by 5-6 cm for example.
Some of the extra treatments to increase the bone healing process are PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) therapy and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
If the bone is not consolidating at all, the distraction process may be reversed. By shortening the bone a little bit, it can be possible to trigger bone regeneration. In case this doesn’t help either, then with a corrective intervention, the surgeon may trim both ends of the non-uniting bone and then wait a little more for the bone to heal.
The bone regeneration process is a challenging and demanding process for the human body. Many patients lose significant weight during the recovery period. It is very important to supply enough nutrients for the body, to prevent body weight loss and help the regeneration process. The food must be rich in calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D.
3-Faster than Normal Bone Union
It is even rarer than a slow union. The optimum bone distraction rate is 1 mm/day for the great majority of patients. This speed is slow enough to ensure the soft tissues aren’t exposed to abrupt tension increase and damage, and fast enough to prevent early consolidation of the bones. If a patient’s bone consolidates so much during the bone distraction, which makes bone lengthening impossible or difficult, it is early bone union.
If you feel too much resistance when turning the key or using an electronic controller during the bone distraction, it is necessary to inform your doctor because your bones may have consolidated early and the nail or external fixator may get stuck and not extend further. This kind of complication can be treated by a secondary osteotomy, which is re-cutting the affected bone, allowing the process to resume. Or, if enough bone distraction has been done and both legs are of equal lengths, the process may be terminated.
4-Thrombosis
This happens when blood clots clog the veins and severely disrupt blood circulation. A type of thrombosis is called deep vein thrombosis which occurs inside a vein deep in the patient’s body. In other cases, the blood clot may end up in the lungs, which is called a pulmonary embolism. Thrombosis, in general, is a serious complication and there is a small possibility of death if symptoms are not detected and controlled in time. However, as a standard procedure, our patients are given blood thinner medications, which make the blood difficult to clot, and keep clot sizes minimum so that they don’t close a major blood vessel.
5-Fat embolism
The mechanism of occurrence is very similar to thrombosis, but it is caused by fat traveling through the bloodstream and causing damage to organs. This type of complication may especially happen in long bone fractures, which is the case in limb-lengthening surgery.
Luckily, the risk is significantly smaller, when the broken bone is fixed immediately, which is also true for limb-lengthening operations. Fat embolism also has a possibility of mortality, however, our surgeon and the medical team do everything possible to keep the possibility of thrombosis, fat embolism, and consequent mortality risk at a minimum.
It should be noted that the possibility of these serious complications is extremely lower compared to other minor complications, and these kinds of risks are not specific to limb lengthening operations but to most types of surgical procedures.
6-Nerve damage
It is possible to get nerve damage if you attempt to do extreme amounts of bone distraction. Usually, for the majority of the patients, the femur lengthening max limit is 8 cm, and the tibia max limit is 7 cm. Patients are at their own risk if they neglect doctor recommendations, increase daily bone distraction rate, or attempt to prevail over the maximum total limits.
As a consequence of excessive tension, nerves may get damaged, and this damage may be permanent. In this scenario, there is a possibility of losing sensations or mobility in the affected limb. A condition called drop foot may occur, due to damage to the peroneal nerve.
Please feel free to check our detailed and extensive video about limb lengthening side effects, complications and risks:
You will be informed about the lengthening increase, lengthening process, the prices of the surgical methods, the difference of the methods, the risks of the surgery.