Femoral lengthening, 2.5 cm gained
A post-trauma deformity case at the Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI), Korea, 2.5 cm of bone lengthened (PRECICE · 24 months post-op), with 8 before and after radiographs.
- Category
- Post-trauma deformity
- Gained
- 2.5 cm
- Height
- —
- Follow-up
- 24 months
Drag the handle to compare before and after (arrow keys work too). Before and after post-trauma deformity, case 89087952, image 2, Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI)
About this case
This patient was treated in the complex & post-trauma deformity group (post-trauma deformity) at the Dr. Donghoon institute (DALRI) in Seoul.
The record states 2.5 cm of lengthening but no before/after height, so only the verified figure is shown.
The series on this page contains 8 images, in the order the hospital published them.
Technique and segment
PRECICE is a fully internal magnetically driven nail: there are no pin sites to care for, which means less pain and a faster return to daily life, but it carries limits on body weight and on the maximum length per segment.
The femur is wrapped in well-vascularised muscle, so the new bone usually consolidates faster than in the tibia and tolerates a larger gain per segment, at the cost of watching for knee stiffness and quadriceps weakness.
Timeline and how to read the radiographs
At the standard rate of about 0.75 mm per day, the 2.5 cm gained here corresponds to roughly 33 days of distraction — about 1 months — before the consolidation phase begins.
This series was taken 24 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.
