“At age twelve, they confirmed that my scarce 1.47 centimeters tall, were definitive and were not going to vary,” he explains to ABC Health Sara, fictional name of a patient who recounts his experience with the bone lengthening to which he submitted in 2019. also known as bone elongationit is a surgical solution that allows bones to be extended through very advanced techniques based on the use of magnetic or electronic nails; which can increase the height of patients to a daily millimeter.
Sara was diagnosed with eight years of an autosomal recessive alteration that among her clinical manifestations entails low stature and early puberty in children. There is no treatment for it. «According to the percentiles that indicate in what position you are regarding other children of your same sex and age, at 18 you should measure at least 1.53 centimeters and that possibility did not fit. So 99% of people would be higher than me, ”recalls the young woman.
People who have benefited from these types of techniques have commonly been those who suffer from acclaplasia, or those who suffer asymmetries or deformities, whether congenital or for an accident. There are people who have a longer leg than the other, to whom these operations have benefited greatly. But in recent years, this operation has gained popularity for aesthetic reasonsof those who seek to feel better with themselves getting a few centimeters more high.
In a society in which there is so much value to appearance, many people are tempted to take the passage through social networks, which show the benefits of these physical transformations. However, many do not know how expensive the procedure is, in addition to how long it results and the risks that it entails, with complications in the tendons and muscles, which can affect, and not little, to their mobility.
Sara recounts how she realized that in the society in which we live the physicist of the person and the cult of the body have become a priority, which harms the “shorts” in the not only social, also work. He began to worry about whether he could reach the pedals of the car and drive, how to get to the cabinets of a house or how to opt for certain jobs (police, hostess, lifeguard …).
As for the operation, he ensures that the hardest thing was to wake up from it. Moment in which he felt hurt and immobilized. Remember the moments of rehabilitation well, since it could stand up and take a few steps, since most of the day was lying or in a wheelchair. “The first steps after the operation are important since they stimulate bone growth and prevent stiffness and atrophy,” explains a man under the pseudonym of ‘grows’, which, through the Tiktok social network, shows the process by the one that is going after undergoing this operation. Likewise, he assures in his networks that the first steps avoid complications such as venous thrombosis and help A rehabilitation, which defines as “very painful”.
«I stopped performing lengthenings because The probability of complications with these operations can overcome the benefits», Explains Francisco Baixauli, Head of Service Saying Orthopedic and Traumatology of the La Fe University Hospital. Remember that 10 years ago they carried out these operations to two 18 -year -old men, who presented a low stature complex with respect to their friends and was understood by their parents. “These patients did not accompany any report of psychological or psychiatric alteration due to their low stature,” says the traumatologist who recognizes that they presented “low idiopathic size,” that is, their low stature did not evidence any disease. He admits that these interventions were quite complex at that time, because they were performed with an external fixative (gadget that came out of the bone through the skin). “In addition, it required a series of procedures in soft parts so that they did not act as a limit to elongation,” says the doctor. “The fundamental challenge that bone elongation procedures represented in front of these people was to know perfectly the treatment to which they were going to be submitted and the lack of elasticity or flexibility that occurred after it,” says the doctor.
Despite ensuring that it is a safe technique in the hands of good specialists, and after the incorporations of the novel techniques that have occurred in recent years, Dr. Ignacio Ginebreda Martí, expert in bone elongations and traumatology in the hospital Universitari Dexeus of Barcelona, also ensures that today patients should take into account and be fully aware of what the limitations and possible complications that can be given.
Advanced techniques
Ginebreda explains that it usually performs these operations to the aforementioned profiles, they are currently operations where technology plays a fundamental role. “During the intervention we break the bone in a controlled way and inserted electronic or magnetic self -expandable intramedular nails,” says Ginebreaa, who comments that, once placed inside the bone, “they are activated from the outside by means of a device that generates controlled impulses.” This causes the bone, naturally helped by osteogenesis, approximately one millimeter per day. “The ancient methods were effectively with external fixers, which were more invasive and caused skin and muscle complications, this technological advance has significantly improved the patient’s experience,” adds the traumatologist.
Dr. Ginebreda, with an experience of more than 35 years in these interventions, says that they greatly facilitate the lives of people with actroplasia who pass, for example, for example, to measure around 1.20m tall to measure 1.50m. This allows them to interact better with the environment. Many of them thanks to this operation can reach a counter or more easily or for example, it is more feasible : «Until the bone did not harden, it had to go in a wheelchair and continue with the rehabilitation. Five months after the operation, I gave my first steps with crutches. It was an exciting feeling to see myself standing in the mirror with my new height. Two years after the operation, the endomedular nails with another operation were withdrawn by ending the process, ”says the young woman, who affirms that despite being a long process, it was worth it and that, after five years from the Operation, leads a normal life, without limitations or physical or psychological sequelae.
«It is important to know that there is the possibility of opting for this operation and documenting the process, although there is not much information. Have a expert medical and psychological equipmentwhich transmits knowledge, trust, and closeness is essential when deciding to operate. Family involvement is also necessary for activities such as going to the bathroom or dressing, ”concludes Sara.
“Growth aesthetics”
In recent years, intervention has transcended the medical field. «These interventions are also carried out to people seeking to be higher for aesthetic reasons, mainly men. Technically it is equally possible, only not so recommended», Says the doctor, which indicates that the majority of demand comes from people who measure around 1.60, who have had a growth problem but do not present a health problem, masse a problem of self -esteem. “In these cases, already differentiated from the other patients, the intervention is not covered by social security,” says the doctor.
Ginebreda affirms that surgeons in Spain tend to advise these operations for those who enjoy good health, since among the possible complications of the elongation of femur, warm and humerus There are rigidity, deformations, loss of functionality and even permanent sequelae. Moreover, in these cases you can only reach a maximum of 16 centimeters more height, eight in the warm and eight in the femur.
He affirms that some surgeons refuse to perform elongations to patients whose staturan represents a medical problem, prioritizing health on aesthetics. Likewise, he acknowledges that he has encountered foreign websites that offer organized tourism to carry out these interventions, in a model similar to that existing in capillaries. “We do not carry out an intervention without first having a face -to -face visit and live exploration,” he emphasizes, remembering the importance of patients knowing the possible consequences of this intervention. “It is not the same a very low healthy patient, than a healthy patient of 1.80m, with whom I am already very strict who usually advises this operation, since they enter into normal growth curves,” says Ginebreda. «In Türkiye, specifically, there are agencies that offer trips in which packages that include elongations are givenstays and the postoperative period. We have found that sometimes those who have opted for this option are not satisfied, ”denounces Dr. Ginebreada, who still states that in Spain these operations are at least half of cheap than in the US:” While In Spain they cost around 50,000 eurosin the United States they are about $ 100,000. Only the price of a screw is worth more than 10,000 euros ».
It admits that, for the moment, in Spain the rise of these practices are not entirely common and that through specialized congresses, in which the Spanish Society for External Fixing and Reconstructive Surgery participates, ethical limits are established before the rise of this practice by Aesthetic reasons.
The self -concept
“It is common for the problem of height to generate more discomfort among men while the issue of weight does it among women,” says Elena Dapra, a health psychologist, a section vocal at the Official College of Psychology of Madrid, which mentions that each It is more common to deal with people who have problems with their own self -concept. According to the expert, self -acceptance can lead to personality, depression and anxiety disorders since self -perception is vital for self -esteem.
«In recent years there is an increase in the normative physical pressure that men must have to be ‘normal’ and it is normal that they are more and more, especially fed by social networks that show a physical image of people Idealized », concrete Dapra. In the case of ‘growing’, the ‘Tiktoker’ that the intervention was carried out for aesthetic reasons, has achieved after the elongation to reach its desired 1.80 meters, but has this improved its self -esteem? «There is always something that we are not perfect», Says Dapra, who affirms that some of his patients have been frustrated because in the links of flirting there are girls who put a concrete size as a condition to their possible couples, as a requirement:« If a person with whom you go To have a relationship or that could be your partner for a while or be part of your life values you only for your height, I think it is time to say enough. The essence of a person is not measured in centimeters, but in their human quality, ”says the psychologist.
Even so, it is difficult to make this message Cale before the population, experts who dedicate themselves to this can only recommend working self -esteem and good information before considering such an intervention: «Gain height is not a fast processcurrently they still need months of intensive physiotherapeutic recovery and a lot of commitment on the part of the patients, ”adds Ginebreda.
#fashion #operating #gain #stature
