Bodybuilder,I believe you and crimsontide.I read some articles that were strictly against ATL and in fact it does have sense since the Achilleus tendon is a very delicate part of our body.
I was asking myself why you still recommends Catagni as one of the best concerning tibia.You cannot say "yes he is a top surgeon at lengthening tibia" and the fact that he strongly suggests ATL is negligible.Of course no one doctor will perform a surgery against your will.But will you disobey at his tips while doing this kind of surgery ? You cannot simply trust him at 50%.Or 100% or nothing
Yes you are right that there is a contradiction in what I said about trusting Catagni although I strongly disagree about atl that does to most of his patients.
But I truly believe that Catagni is good with LL, he is a master of external Ilizarov and he is very experienced so you could lengthen a normal amount with straight bones and no major risks (malunions etc).
But I still don't believe that it is necessary to trust this doctor for anything else than lengthening your bones.
Bone is a very different case of tendons, a doctor who is best in the first does not mean he is the same good at the second and the opposite.
And as I said, if you give time and stretch a lot then it is very hard to have problems with bf if you lengthen less than 6-6.5 cm so with a minor or minimum bf Catagni won't suggest to do atl.
Thw bad thing with Catagni is not that he performs atl but that he thinks it won't cause any major effect on your legs and does not advice his patients to try hard to prevent bf so as not to need atl. Most Catagni's patients think that they can lengthen as much as they want and then do an atl to have again normal rom. But they don't know that the proce for that rom is a huge power deficit.
Tendon's length play a crucial role in the power it exerts from the muscle and a lengthened tendon can NEVER become as powerful as a normal tendon, thats a fact.
So I trust Catagni for lengthening bones and treat complications that has to do with bones per se (malunions, infections etc) but I'd never let him or any other doctor mess with my tendons.
I did that mistake before 5 years and now I know how wrong I was.
Atl was by far the biggest mistake of my life. But thanks God it wasn't irreversible as with tendon shortening most of my tension and power is back.