A surgery that is gaining popularity quickly for patients of all ages and backgrounds is limb lengthening surgery. Designed to improve the overall quality of life for these patients, limb lengthening surgery gives them additional inches in their limbs for improved support and improve self-confidence. When looking to determine if this surgery is right for you, it is important to understand the safety of the surgery before making a decision. 

The short answer to this question is yes, limb lengthening surgery is safe for those who undergo the procedure. There are several measures taken to ensure the safety of each patient before and during the surgery to maintain the overall safety of you during this invasiveness. Understand what limb lengthening surgery is and how it is a safe procedure with rewarding benefits. 

What is Limb Lengthening Surgery?

An experienced surgeon does this procedure, and the limbs you want to lengthen are cut all the way through. What this process does is jump-start the healing process within your body. Over the course of a couple of months, your bones will slowly be pulled each day, forcing your body to generate more bone in an attempt to mend the bones and heal. The bones must be pulled throughout the day, maximizing your length by 1 millimeter a day. By the time the process is over, some patients can have up to 6 inches added to their limbs and change their height. 

While this is an intense surgery that comes with an extensive recovery period, it is safe, especially when the patient takes the doctor's orders and follows them exactly in the following weeks. 

Surgery is Not Rushed

While some surgeries boast about their quick turnaround time from prep to recovery, you will not hear that when it comes to height lengthening on any of your limbs. One of the worst things you can do for any surgery, especially limb lengthening surgery, is to rush the procedure and expect the same results. This process is delicate. To be successful and maximize the lengthening results, surgeons and medical staff are required to take their time, providing exceptional attention to detail from the prepping to cleaning in post-surgery. 

Attempting to rush a surgery at this caliber can cause permanent damage to the body since this surgery is literally requiring the surgeon to cut into your existing bone and force your body to heal by generating more bone. Since the lengthening actually happens after the surgery, your limbs need to be properly prepared for the months following, when the bone is pulled and new bone generated.

High-Quality Metals

When the surgeons use pins, rods, and frames for the lengthening procedure, only the best quality will work for safety purposes. The only quality metals that are used in your body are stainless steel or titanium. These metals are durable enough to work with the body when moving the limb and keep your body safe internally. Any metal cannot be used and must withstand the internal environment that it will be placed in during the surgery and throughout the rehabilitation process. 

One concern and question that patients ask regularly is regarding these metals and their effect on the body internally. These metals are some of the toughest out there and used to make permanent pieces in the body for patients with different surgeries, requiring permanent metal pieces to be left inside. 

Assisted Recovery

Unlike other surgeries where you are sent home and manage recovery on your own, you have assisted recovery with limb lengthening. Those visiting you in the recovery room and later at home are much more frequent than other common surgeries. Your medical team needs to keep a close eye on the surgical area for several days following the surgery to ensure no infections are setting in or your body is having an adverse reaction to the surgery. 

To maximize the length in the correct limbs, doctors and medical staff visit and oversee the maximizing themselves following surgery. For such an intense surgery and needs to be monitored, the cut bone is pulled with the assistance of your medical team to ensure that it is adding the desired length to your body and frame. You will not be in recovery alone, even when you return home after surgery. 

Physical Therapy

In addition to the assisted recovery is the growing need for physical therapy. With you literally changing the length of your limbs, it is important to make sure that you can use these new limbs and recover properly for your overall health. With assistance from physical therapy, you learn how to use your limbs just as those who receive prosthetic limbs during amputation. Muscles need to stretch to match the new size of your limbs and is this is done through the constant use of physical therapy. For many weeks following the surgery, physical therapy will become a staple in your daily life, experiencing it several times a week for your safety. 

Limited Complications

Because of how well the surgeons maintain this surgery and take their time while you are under, the complications of this surgery are limited. Once you wake up from your surgery, you will be given strict instructions from your medical team to do when they are not there at your home. You will also be prescribed some physical therapy sessions to prevent any long-term complications to the limbs, such as blood clots and infections that develop from not being as active as you should be following this type of surgery. 

Is Limb Lengthening Surgery Right For You?

If you are looking to boost your self-confidence and improve the length of your height or shorter arms, then limb lengthening surgery may be right for you. While the surgery may appear intense and complex, the results are worth the work you will improve your height. 

At Height Lengthening in Burbank, CA, we want to talk to you. Contact us today with an online inquiry or give us a call at (818) 740-5428 for more information.