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[vincenzocal]

Using stem cells to produce a piece of tibia or femur bone around 4-6 cm in length which is to be inserted in the legs during surgery which then consolidates for a few months?

with current research they say such an operation is soon to be possible however would the soft tissues allow this rapid pulling?

what is the maximum amount of rapid distraction the soft tissues would allow before irreparable damage occurs?

[0184946]

I doubt the soft tissues would be able to handle that. Maybe in the year 2090 this should be possible causel i think LL technology has a long way to go.

Most doctors draw the line at 1mm so i guess max amount of distraction per day would be 1.5mm? I dont even wanna imagine how lengthening 2mm/day would feel like. But as cliché as it sounds everyones body is different there is no universal answer

[KiloKAHN]

I can't imagine the body's soft tissue would adapt well at all to that rapid of a change in bone length. Legs would probably feel like total crap for years.

[682]

Bone growth isn't the issue with limb lengthening, apart from complications such as non-union, new bone growth isn't difficult as distraction is expected and reliable. Theoretically, bone growth is unlimited but as you said, it's soft tissue that must be stretched slowly and not beyond it's elasticity to rapidly otherwise major damage and plastic deformation can occur. What is more interesting is using the same stem cells to actually repair the soft tissue damaged during lengthening.

[vincenzocal]

Bone growth isn't the issue with limb lengthening, apart from complications such as non-union, new bone growth isn't difficult as distraction is expected and reliable. Theoretically, bone growth is unlimited but as you said, it's soft tissue that must be stretched slowly and not beyond it's elasticity to rapidly otherwise major damage and plastic deformation can occur. What is more interesting is using the same stem cells to actually repair the soft tissue damaged during lengthening.

yes, that was my thinking as well. repairing the stretched muscles with MUSCLE GRAFTS from stem cells would theoretically be achievable, but what worries me is the nerve that goes through the leg to the foot. this fragile fibre would inadvertently present problems if one decides to stretch it rapidly

in my opinion, a hypothetical way to do such surgery, lets say on tibiae, is to cut the skin all around the ankle, pull it back up the leg above the spot to be cut, cut the bone + muscle with a saw, insert bone graft piece, insert muscle grafts, stitch it all up, pull the skin back down to the ankle and stitch it up.

the nerve presents the problem in this scenario, however, it is known that accidentally fully amputated limbs can be sawn back with close to the original sensation so the nerve can be cut after all and stitched back up

[Chris]

I don't trust Dr. Deepak anymore, but he said that lengthening faster than 2mm/day will most likely lead to severe and permanent nerve damage.
An my German doctor told me that legs could be stretched by up 1 to 1.5cm (depending on leg length) without any issues.
So maybe a bone graft during surgery could at least speed up the lengthening by the aforementioned amount.

Thinking about it, this makes me wonder why internal nails are not instantly lengthened to 1 to 1.5cm during surgery...

[alps]

Dr. Guichet is known to do a 1cm lengthening right after surgery. A bit scary to hear.

[682]

I don't trust Dr. Deepak anymore, but he said that lengthening faster than 2mm/day will most likely lead to severe and permanent nerve damage.
An my German doctor told me that legs could be stretched by up 1 to 1.5cm (depending on leg length) without any issues.
So maybe a bone graft during surgery could at least speed up the lengthening by the aforementioned amount.

Thinking about it, this makes me wonder why internal nails are not instantly lengthened to 1 to 1.5cm during surgery...

Lengthening of 2MM daily is extremely fast and very likely to permanently damage soft tissue, people forget that in the past, the upper limit recommended by doctors was 0.5-0.8MM daily. I too have come to the conclusion that there is a small buffer zone that soft tissue can cope with without being noticeably damaged - bone thickening occurs during HGH usage and can result in a slight height increase even after growth plates have closed (throughout the body), nobody has reported in lesser athletic potential from HGH use so to some degree a small amount of lengthening seems relatively safe and the soft tissue seems to adapt, what that safe amount is, I'm unsure of.

Would the rapid initial lengthening of 1 - 1.5CM not have the same issues as any other time during lengthening? Or do you believe this would be down to the soft tissues elasticity limit allowing rapid initial lengthening before truly 'stretching' the tissue beyond 1 - 1.5CM?

Some light reading on a study done on lengthening rates - http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=3352.0