Femoral + tibial lengthening
A cll precice case at the Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI), Korea (159 → 170.8 cm tall · LON · 20 months post-op), with 10 before and after radiographs.
- Category
- CLL PRECICE
- Gained
- —
- Height
- 159 → 170.8 cm
- Follow-up
- 20 months
Drag the handle to compare before and after (arrow keys work too). Before and after cll precice, case 14390078, image 2, Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI)
About this case
This patient was treated in the height increase (limb lengthening) group (cll precice) at the Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI) in Seoul.
Height measured 159 cm before surgery and 170.8 cm once distraction was complete — a gain of 11.8 cm, as recorded by the hospital itself rather than estimated by us.
The series on this page contains 10 images, in the order the hospital published them.
Technique and segment
LON (Lengthening Over Nail) combines an external frame with an intramedullary nail, so the frame stays on only during the distraction phase and comes off once the target length is reached, while the nail carries the load through consolidation.
Lengthening the femur and tibia together gives the largest total gain and keeps upper- and lower-leg proportion balanced, but recovery and physiotherapy take clearly longer than a single-segment case.
Timeline and how to read the radiographs
In deformity-correction cases the distraction phase is shorter than in height cases, because the goal is realignment rather than distance gained.
This series was taken 20 months after surgery. The regenerate is fully consolidated, and this is the window in which hardware removal is considered.
Daily physiotherapy through the distraction phase is the single strongest predictor of the result: patients who stop stretching run into joint stiffness far more often than into problems with the bone itself.
All images are published by the Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI) and shown with permission. Individual results vary; these cases are not a guarantee of outcome.
