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[microman]

I would like to know the difference in recovery times for internal femur vs. external tibia, I hear you lengthen faster with femurs, and they recover faster.

so in the case of guichet and betz internal femur vs external tibia with say mitkovic.

what are the times for lengthening and the times for consolodation, includingthe time to remove the device, for 5cm.

there are also 2 othe threads I have seen that discuss the advantages for external tibia vs interal femur.

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=927.msg16504#msg16504
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=1872.msg29901#msg29901

we can kind of discuss them here as well.

basically i need to decide between the expensive doctors that offer internal, vs the cheaper ones that are external only, and likely tibia.

[KiloKAHN]

Well for me, it took just under 4 months to lengthen tibias with exfix 6 cm at a rate of .75 mm per day. Consolidation for me is expected to take around 8 months. I've yet to be able to walk without a walker. Seems like a lot of internal femur patients recover from the same amount in half the time.

[microman]

when you say 8 months, do you mean 4 months lengthening + 8 months consolodation, so 1 year to be back to normal for 6cm.

I thought 5cm would take 9 weeks to lengthen via mitkovics device, am I a bit wrong.

so are you saying for femur 6cm it would take 2 months to lengthen and 4 months so recover, so 6 months in total, but with guichet don't you have to wait a really long time to take out the device, or is that betz, i heard it was almost 1.5 years.

[crimsontide]

he doesnt mean 12 months to be normal, though its possible.

he's going to have frames removed after 12 months. He's stilling using a walker after 10-11 months

The surgery is worth it, but potential patients shuld be aware how long it takes for a lot of people

[microman]

how strange in another diary it was mentioned it would take 8 months to be fully walking normally for 5cm, this was with tibia with mitkovics device.

I was hoping femur would be 5 months in total.

[crimsontide]

it depends

i know a person that did around 5 cm and took about 15 months to walk without a cane, though he says he's now walking fine

[microman]

wow really, there must have been some complication then.

I don't think that is a standard outcome.

but assuming a standard outcome, how long would you say the average is between tibia and femur.

by my math,  for lengthening 5cm the lengthening phase would be 75 days/9 weeks in tibia at 0.67mm a day, it should be 50 days/7 week in femur at 1.00mm a day, would that at least be correct

[crimsontide]

there was no complication

you do realize some people say they arent the same even 2 years after

you shouldnt be worrying just about lengthening. you should  expect to take a year to recover, just to be safe

[microman]

okay I'll take that on board.

but for at least device removal, when would it happen for betz or guichet using interal femur vs mitkovic or russia using external device for 5cm.

[Alittletooshort]

In the case of an interal device the removal is usually after 2 years, but since it's an internal device it shoudln't bother you with your daily routine anyways. There are videos of internal LL patients who are walking more or less fine even though they are only two months post op (obg).
So yes it's a huge difference between the two methods.
2 months per cm is the rule for external devices so expect to have them on for around 10 months if you do 5cm's.

[microman]

wow 2 years christ not sure about that one. so you recover faster but the device stays in your leg for almost twice as long.

doesn't sound so great to me.

[Metanoia]

Betz patients need a longer time for consolidation due to the instability of the Betzbone nail. That's why sometimes the nail breaks long time after lengthening. Nails without twisting motion don't have this problem. Guichet seems to have a more stable mechanism than Betz though.

[microman]

okay but with external the device is removed after 8 months, with interal it is more like 1.5 years post op.

you say they are walking fine after 2 months, so are you saying during consolodation, with internal you can move around and resume normal activities? so in some respect are you not fully recovered then?

just want to clarify that that is the case with all internal devices.

although not entirely related im seriously thinking of only going for 4cm now even though im only 164cm in the uk where male average is 177.

[Alittletooshort]

No you won´t walk fine after such a short time but some devices are wheight bearing so walking can be done in a much ealier stage. You can go on with your life much faster with an internal device than with an ex fix.
The nail in your bone shoudln´t be noticiable, so you can´t compare it with something like externals.

[Joel]

Salemfix is a good one I think man I want to do that pretty bad.

[microman]

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=825.msg33387#msg33387

in this thread it is said that external femurs is about the same as tibia in terms of doability?

with that being said with external can you do 1/mm a day on femurs, and have this whole thing done much faster.

[maximize]

No decent surgeons offer external femurs. There are a couple reasons.

- Having Ilizarov/TSF rings between your thighs will make it impossible to really stand up with your legs in any normal alignment.
- The muscles of the thigh do not offer good anatomical positions for Ilizarov/TSF pins to be placed through.
- Monorail femurs lead to misalignments like Blue Barbie.
- Internal femurs is safe, fast, and effective.

If you're doing femurs, it should probably be internal or not at all.

[microman]

are you saying barinov is not a decent surgeon?

but I will take your advise as well, it is noted.