Arm Lengthening Case Study - 9yr Old American Girl

[MMT Admin]

This is for a nine-year old girl who was born with a bone deformity

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4039315&page=1

[WTBT2007]

Interesting how when the LL surgery is performed as a medical procedure, it is described as "gently cracking the bone," whereas a cosmetic procedure, it is described as "sawing the bone in half."

[MMT Admin]

Interesting how when the LL surgery is performed as a medical procedure, it is described as "gently cracking the bone," whereas a cosmetic procedure, it is described as "sawing the bone in half."

Yes, I noticed that too, although I did wonder if it was because the bones in the arm are simply not as thick or as strong as leg bones

[DavidH]

Hi MMT,

Thank you so much for taking the time to find and post the story about the little girl. Since the muscles in the arm are no where near as large or strong as those attached to the femur it's reasonable this has something to do with the "painfree" procedure the doctor describes.  Doesn't sound anything like the nightmare scenario we were led to believe arm lengthening would be.  Then again, the patient was very young, and it's only one case study.  She may be the exception.

Again, thanks for taking the arm lengthening question seriously.

Best regards,

DavidH

[MMT Admin]

No problem, David, happy to help!

[Minnesota_Mike]

Interesting how when the LL surgery is performed as a medical procedure, it is described as "gently cracking the bone," whereas a cosmetic procedure, it is described as "sawing the bone in half."

The surgeon himself describes it as follows: "What we're doing is a bone lengthening, which means that we have to gently crack a bone so that its blood supply is preserved [...]". It would thus seem that they are doing a corticotomy (splitting only the outer part of the bone), and not a complete osteotomy which is done in the majority of cosmetic LL cases. In other words it's an accurate description.

What surprises me is that the reporter describes it as a "surgery breakthrough" and "pioneering new surgery technique", when it has in fact been done for several decades. This just goes to show that the general population doesn't have a clue that limb lengthening surgery even exists. This might not be a bad thing though

[WTBT2007]

yeah, true, perhaps b/c of the arm it requires less force in breaking the bone hence "cracking."

[Black_Star]

I find it funny that that the girl went in for the surgery because her shorter arm was bothering her and "keeping her from leading a normal life" and how the reporter makes it sound like this surgery would make all of her troubles go away. Yet, you get a man who finds that his height bothers him and suddenly he is a freak for wanting to go through that same "cracking." Double standard anyone?

[MMT Admin]

I find it funny that that the girl went in for the surgery because her shorter arm was bothering her and "keeping her from leading a normal life" and how the reporter makes it sound like this surgery would make all of her troubles go away. Yet, you get a man who finds that his height bothers him and suddenly he is a freak for wanting to go through that same "cracking." Double standard anyone?

I think that this arises because people are happy that people have operations to resolve deformities, but frown upon the same procedures being used for cosmetic purposes.

I've heard it described like this:

"It's OK to improve upon what God gave you, or to correct any problems from mother nature, but it is not cool to change what God gave you..."

[Apotheosis]

I've heard it described like this:

"It's OK to improve upon what God gave you, or to correct any problems from mother nature, but it is not cool to change what God gave you..."

What people ignore when making the argument about "changing what God gave you" is that God didn't necessarily give you the environmental / nutritional factors that also play a very important part in determining what your final height will be. It's not all genetics.

[MMT Admin]

What people ignore when making the argument about "changing what God gave you" is that God didn't necessarily give you the environmental / nutritional factors that also play a very important part in determining what your final height will be. It's not all genetics.

But God still controls your environment...

[skidude]

But God still controls your environment. . .

What if you don't believe in God?

[anonymous coward]

But God still controls your environment. . .

But then, that would mean that God wanted deformed people to be deformed. 

[MMT Admin]

But then, that would mean that God wanted deformed people to be deformed. 

No, the devil does that.

[anonymous coward]

No, the devil does that.

Are you taking advantage of my username(coward) or are you just posting your opinion.
Because you kinda freaked me out.