You may need limb lengthening treatment for many reasons. These may be because of limb length discrepancies. These discrepancies may be because of a healed fracture, a congenital defect, or because of a disease.
But you don’t have to worry, there are treatment options to overcome this situation. Many modern surgical methods can help you in such situations.
Here in this post, you will be able to know the procedure of limb lengthening treatment. Just scroll down and you will get there.
The first stage in the treatment is an osteotomy. It is a kind of operation in which the surgeon cuts the bone that has to be lengthened. He then stabilizes the limb using internal or external fixation frames or devices.
The next phase is the distraction phase. In this phase, the cut bone is pulled apart. This process is termed as distraction osteogenesis.
Under this process, the new bone is grown on the osteotomy area.
The growth of new bone is maintained through spreading the gap at decided time intervals. These time intervals can be four times a day, one millimeter a day, or one-quarter millimeter with each adjustment.
When the space between the bones opens up the body produces new tissues to fill the gap. The gap is filled until the desired length is achieved.
In the next phase, the bone is healed and consolidated.
The patient tries to put weight on the limb. They try to walk without any assistance. This phase is termed as the consolidation phase.
In this process, an external fixator or internal lengthening nail is used for gradually increasing the length of the bone.
External fixation is like a frame that is built on the outer region of the limb. The limb is connected to the bone with the help of screws, pins, or wires.
For gradually increasing the length of the limb adjustments can be made to the external fixator.
These adjustments can help in straightening the maligned or short limb.
An internal lengthening nail is a telescopic and motorized intramedullary nail that is inserted into the marrow cavity. The magnet in the nail is rotated through a remote-control device. This helps in gradually increasing the bone.
This method of increasing the limb length is done at the time of surgery. The length is gradually increased over the next few weeks.
During an osteotomy, the patient is given epidural anesthesia. This is the same anesthesia given to a woman during childbirth. The patient during the limb lengthening treatment stays in the hospital for about 2 days.
The surgery doesn’t involve large incisions or deep cuts.
The success rate of limb lengthening surgeries is around 95%. It involves minimal scarring as small incisions are done during the surgery. There is a rare serious complication in the surgery. Little pain due to pins and stiffening is common among the patients.
Thus, anyone suffering from the problem can easily get the limb lengthening treatment done at the appropriate time and situation.
