The consultation was 30 minutes on the DOT, and it was the most expensive 30 minutes of my life of $200.
Cost for Surgery and Nail:
$45,000 USD for Precise Internal Femur
$15,000 for External Tibia.
He doesn't have STRYDE nails.
No flexibility on costs. Yes, I asked.
I really didn't want to do this consultation because all of the questions I already knew the answers to because the answers could be easily found online but it seemed like it was a requirement if you wanted to do the surgery at all.
Here are some of the answers from Parihar himself:
1) Would the consultation fee count towards surgery?
A: No
2) Which would be preferred regarding recovery and safety? Internal Femur or LON Tibia?
A: Internal Femur is "state of the art, the best", and so the preference would be for Femur.
3) Does the bone healing duration compare from external to internal?
A: They are roughly the same. But I would say the femur might possibly be faster. This is because there is much more Vascular Tissue surrounding the femur and this may perhaps cause quicker healing in the femur. But this difference is nothing crazy and definitely not months.
4) Is it possible to get surgery in another hospital?
A: No, because they are too far away and this type of surgery requires frequent visitations from doctors. We are working on developing a new facility but this will be in the future.
5) I understand you don't do externals on femurs, but I see that lots of other doctors do. What do you think about such methods?
A: There are just too many complications that occur in external lengthening on the femur because there is so much muscle around it. It is never worth it and therefore I will never do externals on femurs for cosmetic purposes.
6) Do you need a Medical Visa or could someone come with a tourist visa and extend it?
(I asked this question because I'm not sure how someone would get their doctor to sign off on Cosmetic Limb Lengthening in the US. Sounds crazy to convince a doctor.)
A: Medical Visa is definitely necessary and we never had a patient that came on a tourist visa.
7) LON Knee pain has been commonly discussed. Is this avoidable?
A: LON Knee pain is more theoretical in my personal opinion. In our facility, we are frequently putting nails for trauma pains and I would know if knee pain was ever an issue as it would come up much more. I'm not convinced about knee pain, and I don't think research has enough evidence to support this. It probably isn't a practical issue but more a theoretical one.
Risk of infection, what do you do the mitigate risks?
A: There is always less than 1% theoretical risk for any surgery. Not just limb lengthening but all surgery. We minimize this risk by standard methods that are applied by all hospitals not just in India but in the states as well. We take all the safety precautions necessary to minimize all possible infection risks.
9) Fat Embolism, do you prescribe any blood thinners or Xarelto?
A: I don't prescribe any medication, just take precautions during surgery. We also stay very vigilant throughout the lengthening process to keep a high suspicion of complications.
10) Do you still hold the same philosophy of "function over length"?
A: Yes, that is why I keep a hard limit of 6cm in tibias. Let's say for example I have a 99% success rate and a 1% failure rate. For that 1% of that patient, it is basically a 100% failure rate as they are experiencing all the fails. It is important to be cautious, rather than being adventurous.
None of these were burning questions, and since not a lot of people had questions to ask him (on my post before requesting questions), I just asked questions that I thought were most relevant in under 30 minutes.
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Topic: Finished Consultation with Parihar (Read 1982 times)