Many patients of Betz did more than 10cm. Even Tall on the old forum did 12cm and he ended up with terrible knee pain due to a completely.off femur tibia ratio, something that Betz never mentioned to him.
He finally did LL in tibias too with Rozbruch or Mahboubian (I don't remeber) just to not end up crippled, although he didn't need the extra height as he was already about 1.87 after his first LL.
And there are many other cases of Betz with much more lengthening than the safe amounts. Yes I don't think he was a good doctor but someone who made his name when only very few doctors did LL, especially in first world countries of Europe. Another example (much worse though) is Guichet, a very expensive doctor with many very bad cases like Unicorn's etc.
I am in the LL world.more than 15 years (and 12 as an LLer) so I really know what I am talking about.
Betz and Guichet are nothing more than overestimated merchants. I don't know about Becker but he must do LLs less than 2-3 years because I haven't heard about him when I was back in the forum about 3 years ago.
And 3 years of.experience for LL is very little.
If he is more experienced than that then its my fault.
Finally, I insist that doing a successful surgery is the most important for LL. Thinking that just putting an im nail is easy and anyone can do it without problems is plain bs. Even more with externals which at least have the opportunity to fix some things after the initial.surgery, especially hexapods.
But with internals the surgery itself is even more than 80% of a successful outcome. With extrernals yes, the post surgery plays some major role.too.
But doctors like Betz and Becker do almost exclusively internals so if the surgery is not excellent then the final.outcome will be problematic for sure, no matter what the patient will do.
Ok first of all yes I can‘t deny that 12 in an isolated surgery is too much. Surely. I am not quite sure if an off femur/tibia ratio causes knee osteoarthritis tbh. Misalignment does it yea but just ratio? Not too sure about that but I would be willing to research that. I think overlengthening will most likely cause balance / movement as well as muscular problems. And a super long recovery.
Second of all, the statement of “he didn’t need extra height”. Are you referring to as he didn’t want to get taller but needed tibia LL to fix it? I am a big believer of starting height doesn’t matter at all. People who choose this have different reasons and backstories. And I somewhat was skeptical myself of doing this for certain reasons but after seeing the faces and hearing the stories of real patients. I definitely changed my mind. Height increase is height increase. No matter where you start and just bc person A does it for reasons A. Person B doesn’t have to do it for the same reasons at all. Anyways I am dwelling off.
I kind of agree with the sentiment about Betz and Guichet but only to a certain degree, as we never heard both sides of the story (for unicorn I do think it is clearly malpractice to the infinite). I will just say this, because I did also hear some bad experience with Dr Betz, a few things. Whatever. Let me just say this, I am very glad I fell under Dr Becker’s regimen at a different location. I think he is more transparent and honest than his companion.
From what I could gather it is at least 4 years training for orthopedic surgeon after med school. Then another 2 years minimum to be a specialist in a certain field (limb lengthening). I heard he is in with Dr Betz for about 5 years or so. So overall I think he might be doing it for 6-10 years now.
Yes this is definitely not as experienced as many others. I do agree. And I also was skeptical. But after my experience with him I am only positively surprised and if I do tibia again I will choose him. Just my 2cents. I understand that to be established he needs many more years and all, and yes I understand if someone chooses someone else, but I am personally satisfied.
I never said you were not knowledgeable and I know your were active on the old forums. It just goes against me that I read someone write facts as if they were facts but in my experience they are simply not true. (Like Becker only doing orthopedic surgery for 2 or 3 years is simply impossible.)
Yes the surgery is obviously the most IMPORTANT part. If it goes wrong you are screwed. But it’s just one part of the big process. Read again, I said most orthopedic surgeons can install an intramedullary nail. They do it for trauma a lot. Now maybe a special lengthening nail and good osteotomy is a different story. But look here
“how to pick a good surgeon”. He admits that a surgeon needs to know more than just the surgery. But how to avoid complications during the process and how to do emergency surgeries etc. And good fibula fixation in tibia etc.
Whatever, if the surgery is good then the outcome will still vary so much by the patient it’s most definitely a big factor. And I also do think a surgeon needs to do checkups and not let a random PT (if there isn’t one close to the team like with Paley) decide about lengthening rate, etc.
Anyways both Betz and Becker are doing excellent jobs at installing the system. But Betz from what I gathered definitely seemed to lack post operative care, that’s why I also have mixed feelings about him.
Also I know u won’t like it but I think nobody should ever do any external method for cosmetic leg lengthening. (That’s my opinion not a fact)