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[ReadRothbard]

I've more or less narrowed my tibial lengthening down to these two docs for my external LATN. Both seem to be excellent, with Catagni being perhaps the most well-renowned doc on Earth for external tibial lengthening. However, Dr. Solomin is also very well regarded--being a top surgeon and professor of Orthopedic surgery at one of Russia's largest university hospitals--as well as an active researcher in the field with several dozen scientific papers under his repertoire. The only key difference is that Dr. Solomin & Kulesh will run me about $25k altogether, while Dr. Catagni & Pilli will likely be more in the $35k range. I haven't heard anything bad about either docs, so I'm curious what people think. Thank you.

[Bob]

I've more or less narrowed my tibial lengthening down to these two docs for my external LATN. Both seem to be excellent, with Catagni being perhaps the most well-renowned doc on Earth for external tibial lengthening. However, Dr. Solomin is also very well regarded--being a top surgeon and professor of Orthopedic surgery at one of Russia's largest university hospitals--as well as an active researcher in the field with several dozen scientific papers under his repertoire. The only key difference is that Dr. Solomin & Kulesh will run me about $25k altogether, while Dr. Catagni & Pilli will likely be more in the $35k range. I haven't heard anything bad about either docs, so I'm curious what people think. Thank you.

Where can we read Dr. Solomin's scientific papers?

[ReadRothbard]

Where can we read Dr. Solomin's scientific papers?

I found the full list of papers he's written on Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leonid-Solomin

I'll admit that I'm pretty impressed, but I want to be sure about him before risking my legs. Meanwhile, I have no doubts at all about Dr. Catagni.

[zaozari]

I also considered both but Catagni is around maybe 73 yo, which despite all his cv is not ideal in a surgeon. I wrote to Pilli but still have no answer. I am also trying to know more about Solomin, he's apparently one of the most respected.

[zaozari]

I have only one abstract from Solomin.  Could you open more?

[Bob]

I found the full list of papers he's written on Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leonid-Solomin

I'll admit that I'm pretty impressed, but I want to be sure about him before risking my legs. Meanwhile, I have no doubts at all about Dr. Catagni.

Thanks. Here is another links to his papers: https://rniito.academia.edu/LeonidSolomin

[zaozari]

This is a great link! Thanks

[ReadRothbard]

I also considered both but Catagni is around maybe 73 yo, which despite all his cv is not ideal in a surgeon. I wrote to Pilli but still have no answer. I am also trying to know more about Solomin, he's apparently one of the most respected.

I know he works with Dr. Pilli, and I believe Pilli mostly covers for him. The same applies with Dr. Solomin and Kulesh.

[Scarface92]

Hi guys, I too will go to either Dr Catagni or Dr Pili, I don't know which of the two to choose, even though I have read that they often work together.

[zaozari]

As I am still waiting Dr. Pili answer and I know these surgeons are very busy, I may call him, altough I hate talking and improvising on the phone. I know Pili and Catagni were together for many many years and so it still seems in many sites.
But Pili seems to have become fully "independent" as he also operates in  a Milan hospital diferent than St. Camillo, he has his own website (altough a bit out of date apparently) a blog a bit old, and even a 1m30s self audio presentation in SoundCloud.
In fact that lack of importance given to systematic marketing is a plus for me.
I also think (not sure) he's much less than 73 yo.

I am still tempted about Solomin, the money counts and he seems to have impressive cv, be the utmost updated, atentive to detail (which is crucial here) and not greedy.

And I have 3 or 4 more options one of which is allmost dropped due to money (Dr. Assayag for example, all US prices are unaffordable to me at the present).

[financialadvisor]

Hey @ReadRothbard, last time I checked in public clinic +14 days of postoperative days in the single hospital room was:
296000 + (11*4700) = 347700 * 0.011 = 3824.7 Eur 
1.5 months per cm = 3000 Eur living expenses
so all in all, I'm saving up to 16 k. eur

How did you arrive to 25k.?

Anyway they Russia doesn't give any visas yet.

[ReadRothbard]

Hey @ReadRothbard, last time I checked in public clinic +14 days of postoperative days in the single hospital room was:
296000 + (11*4700) = 347700 * 0.011 = 3824.7 Eur 
1.5 months per cm = 3000 Eur living expenses
so all in all, I'm saving up to 16 k. eur

How did you arrive to 25k.?

Anyway they Russia doesn't give any visas yet.

The quote they gave me was 25k for the private clinic + visa support.

[zaozari]

Hey @ReadRothbard, last time I checked in public clinic +14 days of postoperative days in the single hospital room was:
296000 + (11*4700) = 347700 * 0.011 = 3824.7 Eur 
1.5 months per cm = 3000 Eur living expenses
so all in all, I'm saving up to 16 k. eur

How did you arrive to 25k.?

Anyway they Russia doesn't give any visas yet.

If Russia follows most of the countries rules they may accept exceptions to covid regulations for visas if we fravel for "medical reasons" and enough financial resources for self subsistence.
There would just be needed a declaration from Solomin and still maybe 5 or 7 quarentine days and vaccination certificate. In fact I'm trying to check that, and if they accept my vaccines (Astra).

I'm now confused  about costs and financialadvisor calculations, but when I checked I remember it got well bellow 35.000 in my mind...

[Thehighest]

Better go to Catagni, although I dont like they do Achilles tendon lengthening very often they produce good results, solomin and kulesh have had strange cases here, better go to the safety. And I would recommend LON, becuase I read that with LATN they can harm the regenerate in the nail insertion and can cause lost  of height gained becuase the regenerate is soft during the nailing.

[ReadRothbard]

Better go to Catagni, although I dont like they do Achilles tendon lengthening very often they produce good results, solomin and kulesh have had strange cases here, better go to the safety. And I would recommend LON, becuase I read that with LATN they can harm the regenerate in the nail insertion and can cause lost  of height gained becuase the regenerate is soft during the nailing.

You can bypass ATL if you're very flexible going into surgery, but yes, I wanted to go with Dr. Catagni for pure externals, but he quoted me about 16 months until I can get back to heavy squatting and deadlifting (10 months if I do LON/LATN). The former is just too long, but the latter can be begrudgingly acceptable.

Dr. Solomin and Kulesh honestly seem to be wonderful doctors, too, however--and they're much younger, so I'm not sure yet. I'll have to contact Dr. Pilli.

[zaozari]

Better go to Catagni, although I dont like they do Achilles tendon lengthening very often they produce good results, solomin and kulesh have had strange cases here, better go to the safety. And I would recommend LON, becuase I read that with LATN they can harm the regenerate in the nail insertion and can cause lost  of height gained becuase the regenerate is soft during the nailing.

Catagni is retiring (73 yo), he wouldn't be allowed to perform surgeries anymore in most European countries, altough I'm still considering him. But LON is not his prefered method. Maybe because it's very crude, with huge loss of blood, and may cause knee problems if not "perfectly" done. On LON maybe Dr. Solomin or even Dr. Lippi are better options technically, as surgeons (just thinking about age). Pili worked together with Catagni (maybe still some times) for at least 20 years.

[financialadvisor]

This is my source, it's posted under Solomin page in forum:

In Rubles.

First surgery:
We recommend:
in private clinic - 296.000 (Conventional Ilizarov or LATN – first step)
+ 3 days in clinic:
8.532x3=25.596 (double room)
11.340x3=34.020 (single room)
19.872x3=59.616 (lux room)
OR
in private clinic - 296.000 (LON – first step)
+ 3 days in clinic:
8.532x3=25.596 (double room)
11.340x3=34.020 (single room)
19.872x3=59.616 (lux room)
+ cost of 2 nails:
110.000x2 = 220.000 (Chinese nails)
130.000x2 = 260.000 (American nails)

We consider admissible:
in municipal clinic – 148.600 (Conventional Ilizarov or LATN – first step)
+ 3 days in clinic:
4.400x3=13.200 (single room)
4.700 x3=14.100 (lux room)
OR
in municipal clinic – 148.600 (LON – first step)
+ cost of 2 nails:
23.000x2 = 46.000 (Russian nails)
57.500x2 = 115.000 (American nails)
+ 3 days in clinic:
4.400x3=13.200 (single room)
4.700 x3=14.100 (lux room)

Postoperative period
The 3rd day after the operation – the 14th day after operation

If you go with pure externals, it's 1.5month per cm and I'm allocating 2k. Eur as a living expense for that period.

[zaozari]

This may sound strange due to last developments in Russia.
But because 1) of the difficulties I am having in contacts with Dr. Pili (I've been considering him as he's been operating with Dr. Catagni for many many years and Dr. Catagni is now around 73 yo), and 2) the impressive background of practice and research of Dr. Solomin;  I am shifting towards the later.
I don’t believe I should "politicise" LL, I don’t even know the politic opinions of Dr. Solomin.
Anyway, I want to ask you all what are your thoughts on this.

There's the "logistics" issues also and actually at this respect there are maybe three positive outcomes for doing LL with Dr. Solomin, despite and even due to this tragedy of war. (Plus many Russians are against the war).
The first is that the ruble is going down and the second is that altough this depends on where we live, in principle I have flight connections guaranteed because flights from Dubai to Russia with Emirates are guaranteed not to be banned and fortunately Emirates has small hub connection near where I live.
The third "positive" issue is that Russia won't ban visas to people from countries not banning travel there, and that's the situation in my country. The government is against Russia but never bans travel anywhere, I'm lucky as it's kind of neutral in individual liberties.

What do you think guys? Is it still too risky?

[zaozari]

By the way, I'm still confused about an estimation of total budget for Dr. Solomin and waiting his email answer I sent yesterday.
Does any of you understand the financial information above?

And: would any of you would like to share travel  doing LL/physiotherapy at the same time and support each other? I  am pointing to do it starting roughly in next September-December if I'm cleared for surgery but I would gladly ajust it with a forum fellow.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Russia is under severe economic sanctions.  Three days isn't enough for these sanctions to do anything.  In a month or so the effects of the sanctions will start to hurt Russia, and civil unrest has already begun.  You can't hide from the effects of war in a hospital, especially when wounded soldiers are coming back there soon.

100% stay away.

[zaozari]

Russia is under severe economic sanctions.  Three days isn't enough for these sanctions to do anything.  In a month or so the effects of the sanctions will start to hurt Russia, and civil unrest has already begun.  You can't hide from the effects of war in a hospital, especially when wounded soldiers are coming back there soon.

100% stay away.

Thanks for your insight. I am supposing russians "only" want to destroy all military capability of Ucrania and retain those 2 provinces and then come back home because don't believe they want to hurt civilians, it would be tragic also for them.
But I am a bit confused with the news, sometimes it seems they want to obtain more dominance than that because of land movement instead of massive air shelling "only" which will in fact cause more casualties among them.
I will have to watch closely  the news and have other options open for LL, don't want to seem selfish but LL time limit is coming fast for me (altough I can't do it right away).
Maybe Solomin also comments on that, I don't know what kind of clinic he's in. Thanks again for that "reminder".

[Medium Drink Of Water]

The Russian government has been telling bald-faced lies for weeks.  The only thing you should suppose at this point is that you can't trust anything they say.  Vladimir Putin seems to be going crazy in recent months according to people familiar with him, and until he is deposed or killed he is the one giving the orders, not the Russian people.  The invasion isn't going as well as Putin had planned, now he's like a baby who's being denied something he thinks belongs to him.  Very dangerous.

Solimon doesn't have his own clinic.  His practice is at the mercy of local hospitals.  And even private practices may be taken over and forced to treat wounded soldiers by the authoritarian regime.

[zaozari]

So it seems I can go to Solomin option safely only if, let's say, by December everything regarding war is finished and not in caos. Maybe the ruble is still (or even much more) really down, due to harm already felt there from sanctions like maybe Swift ban for Russians and they need foreign currency. Of course only if Solomin doesn't rise his prices over compensation of ruble devaluation, which he probably ''can't'' do if he doesn't want to lose most of russian and asian ''clients''.
My problem is not only that I had ''pre-selected'' him after careful and long analysis, it's also that at this very moment I cannot afford much more money and may enter into ''desperation'' mode if I don't do this quickly. It has been years of waiting, psychological preparation and neurosis, many things got ''frozen'', I am not young and despite all my awareness, I can't fight this much longer :-(

[lift17]

hi how can i contact with solomin and his clinic?

[lessthanavg8300]

I'm not trying to be discouraging, but going from 5 foot 7 to 6 foot 3 is going to potentially cripple you for life.  And 7cm on your tibias is a lot.  Why don't you pick a reasonable goal and get to an average height and call it a day so you can walk again and enjoy life after.

[BeyondAverage]

I'm not trying to be discouraging, but going from 5 foot 7 to 6 foot 3 is going to potentially cripple you for life.  And 7cm on your tibias is a lot.  Why don't you pick a reasonable goal and get to an average height and call it a day so you can walk again and enjoy life after.

I second this. Do 6cm femur and 5cm tibia

172cm/5’7 to 183cm/6’0 is a massive improvement and far more in the safe range.

You’ll have a completely different life at 6’0 and still be able to walk.

Don’t go lengthening 20cm. You’ll look like a flamingo and never recover as well as just lengthening 11cm

[Taweel]

I second this. Do 6cm femur and 5cm tibia

172cm/5’7 to 183cm/6’0 is a massive improvement and far more in the safe range.

You’ll have a completely different life at 6’0 and still be able to walk.

Don’t go lengthening 20cm. You’ll look like a flamingo and never recover as well as just lengthening 11cm

Ism the same height as you 181 cm,you say to him just do 11 cm and he can able to walk?what about running and other abilities?did you think that 8 cm in femur and 5 cm in tibia would be the best?we well touch 194cm!

[ReadRothbard]

I should note that I plan to lengthen 5-6 inches, not 8 inches. The latter goal of 6’3 is a pipe dream that is only within reach if I find a way to grow an extra couple inches outside of LL. 5-6 inches is substantial and on the edge of what’s safe, but it’s not beyond the pale by any means.