arm lengthening surgery

[barb4alex]

hi My daughter was told that my granddaughter needs a surgery (treatment) where the bone is broken and a device is used to lengthen the arm by adjusting the device regularly(i am assuming this is to keep pressure on the arm) Has anyone had this done or can you tell me anything about it thanks barb

[ptrefam]

It sounds like they will use a fixator. Dustin didn't have it but 2 people that were in the hospital at the time he was did. Theirs were on the legs. It was screwed into the bone and ran outside the leg. I think it was like every 6 hrs. they had to turn the allen screws 1/4 turn. This amounted to a very small movement. It was explained that it then kept the bone growing toward each other and could lengthen it. I think one of the boys was missing 4" of bone after his accident and they used this to encourage it to grow to make up for the missing bone.
Sue

[marieke]

Hi, there was a post on this a few weeks back. Search for Ilizarov. That is what the procedure is called. They break the bone, put the fixator aound it, consists of pins through the bone, with external rings to "fixate" the whole thing. The bone is "stretched" a little every day.
Here is a link to show you what it does/how it works...

http://www.vardaan.net/ilizarov.htm

Marieke

[marieke]

I found the thread...

http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread ... read=14189

[Marnie]

There are pictures on Dr. Nath's website, go to:
http://www.drnathbrachialplexus.com/web ... =5&limit=5
go to page 2.

[barb4alex]

hi thank you all for the help the sites are very informative i can see why my daughter is having a difficult time thinking about this procedure thanks again barb

[admin]

my daughter (7) is currently going through this right
now. She had the Illizarov put on on Feb 3rd.

I tried to contact you directly, but your email addr didn't work for me. Contact me directly and I will be happy to answer any
questions..

Missy.