Hey so another 2 thoughts about possible complications. I was wondering, with femur LL, what nerves are causing the most trouble and in which parts of the body?
1. I was thinking about the potential risk of permanently losing sensation. If you think about it, arm lengthening for cosmetic purposes is a joke as losing sensation in your hands and arms is much more devastating than if you'd lose it in your ancles or shin (and unjustified if you literally just make your arms 5cm longer which doesn't improve any functionality and is not worth it cosmetically). With humerus lengthening the radial nerve for example lays close to the bone which could be compressed, eg. one user on the old forum did discrepency lengthening in his humerus, needed nerve release and had permanent sensation loss and a huge scar from the nerve release surgery (he did it with Paley so it was not with a bad doctor too).
However, even a PERMANENT loss in "useless" regions such as ancles, shin, etc. with leg lengthening is unacceptable imo (but obviously less dramatic than reduced nerve function in your upper extremeties).
2. Could numbness in the pelvic or genital area occur as well due to LL or would damage to the nerve always be distal to the osteotomy (meaning below the cut)? Did anyone here have nerve problems ABOVE the osteotomy aka in the pelvis/genitals/hips?
For the genitals especially, after doing some research, I found out most nerves (sacral spinal nerves) shouldn't be stretched from LL (so no risk there) except maybe the genitofemoral nerve which innervates your balls (in males). Is this nerve at risk?
Plus maybe the sciatic nerve could lead to some problems in the pelvis.
However, all of this only applies if the nerves become damaged by stretching ABOVE the "distraction spot" aka the osteotomy side. Or in other words, if the nerve is stretched, does it lose function in the distal part or does it lose function overall and in every branch due to intense stretching?
If they just lose function below it the risk of losing sensation in your genitals is inexistent.
What do you guys think?