Leg Lenghening Applications.

Corrective surgery was the main intention of Dr Ilizarov, as he saw injured soldiers with healed deformed limbs from the war. He was looking at the wheel of a horse and cart and thought if the bone was the axel and the spokes were the wires, he knew he could support the limb whilst healing of the corrected bone began.


The Ilizarov external fixation device is often called a Compression-Distraction Apparatus, two bony ends are compressed together whilst at the same time distracting form the corticotomy site.

http://www.images.com/.

The patient is encouraged to start weight bearing soon after surgery to encourage new bone growth. The period of time the frame has to stay on is quite long, so immediate physiotherapy must start to try to reduce the time the frame has to stay on.

(Images supplied by Placement Hospital 2007)

If the Patient is sat on a chair with their legs together, the doctor can place his hand on the highest knee to assess the corrective height to be achieved. After surgery they can adopt the same technique to assess the corrected height, if the adjusted height has become too much then contraction of the new growth can be applied, although this sounds painfull, it is only a matter of millimeters for adjustment, and it is good for the bone healing.