For 4.5-5.5 cm range, how viable is it to lengthen the femurs with pure external method (circular Ilizarov frames)? Is it more safe than LON femur with monolaterals?
I know that internal femur is the best option but I want to increase my height in a reasonable timeframe and don't want to wait for many years.
After many examinations of various body proportions I came to a conclusion that it's best to lengthen 10-12% of original bone lengths for both femur and tibia. The major limiting factor is my arm length which is fine for my current height range but doesn't give room for greater lengthening amounts.
My tibia is 35 cm and my femur is 43-44 cm (78-79 cm total for both segments). For 10-12% lengthening I have to lengthen 3.5-4.2 cm on tibia and 4.4-5.3 cm on femurs. Minimum is 10% and if everything goes well, I'll keep stretching to 12% and stop there. 8-9.5 cm total lengthening is fine for me. I'll have perfect leg to body ratio if I lengthen 9 cm total which is absolutely enough.
I have to either do cross-lateral without nails or lengthen tibia without nails and then lengthen the femurs with LON monolaterals or vice versa. IMO it's better to lengthen femurs with LON monolaterals first and after 3 months lengthen tibia with pure external in order to make it in about 1 year total.
What do you recommend for 4 cm tibia and 5 cm femurs considering pure internal method is out of the equation for me.
Thanks.