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mfrodsham's blog

Non-surgical bone lengthening?

Wow, amazing stuff!! http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/28/060628204537.2422eofv.html. Could it be just around the corner? Could we drastically limit the number of sugeries our daughter needs to have by implanting this device in her femur? Wow, here's for hoping.

It seems some engineers/scientists in Alberta have developed a pea-sized device that emits ultrasound waves and stimulates bone growth. It was actually developed as a means to "re-grow" teeth, but they suspect there may be some applicability to bone lengthening.

What we're doing

We recently started the surgery process with our daughter. We are using Dr. Stevens at Shriner's/Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake City (we live close by).

It was pretty scary to do the first surgery (hip osteotomy 2 weeks ago), but it went very well, and we were very pleased. We have a long road ahead of us, but we are hopeful/confident everything will work out well in the lengthening process. It was almost as scary and nerve racking as when she was born, and we couldn't figure out what the deal was (you all have gone through that, it appears).

Incidentally, our daughter has a class B difference that sort of went to a class C over the first 3 years since the hip was not properly aligned (and thus she is not able to take advantage of all her growth plates). We are opting for the lengthening. To lengthen, they have to first realign the hip. Thereafter, they will perform a leg lengthening each year.

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