Sed underwent surgery in 2015, increasing his height from 162 to 170 centimeters. Every year, hundreds of people around the world undergo lengthy and sometimes very painful leg lengthening surgeries in order to grow several centimeters taller. Like any surgery, this procedure carries a certain amount of risk, and according to doctors, some patients experience health problems after such “lengthening” procedures.
Sam Becker was the tallest kid in middle school, but his classmates soon outgrew him. “After entering college, I realized that I am shorter than many other boys and even girls. This affects you. Honestly, women usually prefer not to date guys who are shorter than them. It was hard for me to deal with the feeling that I would never be able to find a woman,” admits 30-year-old Sam, who lives in New York.
For a while, he still hoped to grow a little, although deep down he understood that he had apparently reached his limit: “I always thought that growth and success were linked. I had to find a solution. Sam considered all options, but such temporary tricks as hidden-platform boots or stretching exercises did not inspire him. But when he learned that it was possible to lengthen his legs, it seemed tempting. After discussing it with his mother and weighing all the pros and cons, he decided to go under the knife. In 2015, he underwent surgery and “grew” 8 centimeters – from 162 to 170 centimeters.
“At the very first consultation, the doctor clearly explained to me how complex this surgery would be. I was worried about what exactly I would be able to do after gaining those extra eight centimeters: Will I be able to walk? Will I be able to run?” he says. “After the surgery, I went three to four times a week for special procedures that lasted several hours. It took about half a year. It was an educational experience. Of course, it sounds crazy… to break both legs and then learn to walk again. It is considered cosmetic surgery, but for me it was about my mental health,” admits Sam.
X-rays of Sam’s legs before and after surgery: metal pins are visible in the right photo. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. эпизоды – Episodes The end of the story. Podcast Advertising.
Leg lengthening surgery is available in more than ten countries worldwide. In some cases, it can increase a patient’s height by as much as 13 cm. There are no exact statistics on the number of patients who decide to undergo the procedure each year, but doctors say its popularity is growing. The BBC contacted several leading clinics around the world and found that the number of similar surgeries varies widely from country to country. Leading clinics in the U.S., Germany and South Korea perform 100 to 200 such surgeries annually. In countries such as Spain, India, Turkey, and Italy, the number is around 20 to 40 per year. In the United Kingdom, the number is even lower – about 15 operations per year. But virtually everywhere, the BBC confirmed, the number of patients is increasing year by year. In Great Britain, the operation is performed only in a few private clinics, whose activities are regulated by an independent commission for compliance with standards of care for the sick and elderly (Care Quality Commission). Its cost can reach 50 thousand pounds (over 67 thousand dollars), while in the USA the price varies from 75 thousand to 280 thousand dollars.
This surgery is not only expensive, but also complex and painful. The method of bone lengthening was first developed by Soviet orthopedic surgeon Gavriil Ilizarov, who treated wounded soldiers after World War II. And while his method has undergone several improvements over the past 70 years, the principle remains the same. The bone is drilled in the area of the femur or tibia and then broken into two pieces. A metal rod is inserted into the fracture site and secured with special nuts. The rod is then slowly lengthened – 1 mm per day – by tightening the nuts until the patient’s leg reaches the desired length. After that, the patient must follow a special rehabilitation program for several months in order to start walking normally. The procedure is fraught with complications-from nerve damage to blood clot formation and improper bone healing.
Barney went through all of that. He underwent surgery in Italy in 2015 and grew 8 centimeters – from 167 to 175 cm. But he did it not so much out of vanity as out of necessity – he needed to straighten the bones in his legs for medical reasons, and he decided to lengthen them at the same time. He was assured that these two procedures could be done at the same time and would not affect his post-operative recovery. However, he is still recovering from the effects. “If I had been 16 years old, I might not have had any problems. But I was 46 when I had the surgery,” Barney explains. “My legs were lengthened, but the bones never fused. I ended up with an eight-centimeter hole…two bone fragments on either side and a metal rod in the middle.”
Barney still remembers the physical pain he endured during the stretching process. “It feels like someone is pulling on every nerve in your leg. There are moments when there’s just no escape from the pain. It’s absolutely unbearable,” he says. Despite this fracture in the leg bones, Barney was able to walk because the connecting spoke supported his weight and held the bones together. But it was also clear that the situation had become difficult. “There was a moment when I thought, “Well, this is the end for me.” I was very lucky that my loved ones and my boss supported me. But all this can easily turn into agony, so it is necessary for your loved ones to approach this with understanding. There is nothing worse than when everything goes wrong,” he says.
“It will take me a long time to recover,” Barney says. Because limb lengthening is performed in private clinics, there is very little data on complications. Professor Hamish Simpson of the British Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons also warns of potential risks. “This method and the procedure as a whole have come a long way in the last twenty years, and the operation is now much safer. However, in addition to growing bone, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and skin cover must also be grown, so the procedure remains very complex, with a high likelihood of complications,” says the surgeon. British orthopedic surgeon David Gudier points out that some of his patients who were planning to undergo limb lengthening had psychological problems such as body dysmorphic disorder [a psychological or mental disorder characterized by excessive concern about perceived flaws in appearance, often imaginary or greatly exaggerated]. He says that as the demand for such surgeries increases, there is growing concern that price will take precedence over quality. “When a patient is faced with the choice of going to a clinic specializing in limb reconstructive surgery or a cheaper alternative, I don’t think they are clearly warned of all the complications that can and often do occur. What happens if you go to another country, have surgery there and then return to the UK with complications? The answer is that you will be referred to me through the National Health Service so that we can correct someone else’s mistakes,” says the doctor.
As for Barney, the day after we met with him, they removed the last remaining steel pin from his hip – five years after the initial surgery. Despite the pain, the cost of the surgery, and several years of rehabilitation, he has few regrets. “It is foolish to regret. There are a lot of people who have had the same surgery, and you don’t even know about them. They just live peacefully. It will take me a long time to recover, but the surgery was worth it. It gave me the opportunity to rebuild my life from the ground up, free from the prejudices associated with being short,” Barney explains.
Orthopedic surgeon Gavriil Ilizarov became famous during the Soviet era for developing a method of bone fusion and lengthening for leg fractures. Having worked as a traumatologist-orthopedist in the post-war years, Ilizarov gained extensive experience in treating injured limbs of former front-line soldiers. His fundamental discovery, known as the “Ilizarov Effect,” was the discovery of the property of tissues to respond to stretching by regenerating themselves, with bone literally growing connective callus. Based on this, he developed a method to stimulate osteosynthesis, or the joining and fusing of bone fragments through compression and stretching. In 1952, Ilizarov developed and patented his compression-distraction device, which consisted of metal rods, rings, and wires used to fix bone fragments. In late 1971, under his leadership, the Kurgan Research Institute of Experimental and Clinical Orthopedics and Traumatology (KNIIECOT) was opened, which has been named after him since 1993.