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[Muse]

We are going to interview doctors worldwide for information about their practice and options for Limb Lengthening Patients.  The purpose is to have a directory of all doctors who are active and available.   This will be a neutral directory with no recommendation of any doctors.   

What questions do you have for the doctors?  Post them here.

[LLL]

Good idea. May I suggest that this forum gets an accompanying wiki for this kind of half-static reference information? I think it's a better medium than forum threads for information that's not directly based around conversations and discussions.

[ChrisIsaak]

1) How many patients have you operated for cosmetic LL so far? How many patients do you operate yearly?

2) What are the risks? What sorts of complications have you faced, and how were these treated? What is the percentage of successful cosmetic limb lengthenings?

3) Do you require your patients to be at a certain level of physical & mental preparedness before LL?

4) What is the estimated total cost, including post-op treatments, stay, medications, physiotherapy? Are unscheduled surgeries covered? How much does a consultation cost?

5) Which nail do you use/offer? External or internal, what kind? What are the pros of the nail that you offer? What are the cons? Do you use alternative treatment options according to the patient's needs?

6) Do you also lengthen the Fascia lata/IT bands for femur lengtening, or release the Achilles tendon for femur lengthening? How often are these performed?

7) Do you require the patient to stay during the lengthening, or can the patient travel back home?

Is the nail weightbearing? What kind of physical therapy is assigned to the patient, including cycling and swimming? (Are these possible?) Can the patient drive? How does the patient sleep? (Any restriced positions?) How does he take a shower?

9) If someone uses an internal nail in femurs, the lengthening is done along the anatomical axis and not the mechanical axis. Thus, lengthening changes the original tibiofemoral angle, causing varus or valgus MAD. What are your opinions about this?

10) Does the patient lose a significant amount of weight during lengthening?

11) What maximum amount of lengthening do you recommend per segment, regarding patient safety? What is the daily rate of lengthening?

12) Crutches, or wheelchair? What are your opinions regarding the weightbearing of the patients? Is cautious walking with crutches while lengthening a must, considering avoiding muscle atrophy? Or it it too risky?

13) What is the time required to lengthen 5 cm, 6.5 cm, 7.5-8 cm, and 10 cm, including recovery times? What is the amount of time a patient must wait before undergoing a second LL operation in another segment? (e.g: Lengthening tibias after lengthening femurs).

14) How long must the patient stay in the hospital post-op? What are some alternative places to stay during the lengthening that you can suggest?

15) When is the patient safe to leave?

[Orlando]

1) What professional training and doctor's fellowship have you undergo related to Cosmetic Limb Lengthening ?

2)  How often will you follow up with patients during lengthening?

3)  How do you minimize the appearance of scars from the process?

4)  How do you minimize and deal with complications during the process?

5)  Do you have a criteria for filtering out unsuitable candidates for the LL process?