Patients who come for stature lengthening at CLLC are always encouraged to walk, do their stretching exercises on their own 3 times a day and get at home physio services 5 days a week for one hour per day.

Even with the removal of the Stryde nail from the market, we firmly believe that motion is the magic potion to success with stature lengthening and does wonder for reducing pain. All our patients are given a walker, crutches and a yoga band to help with stretching. Our physio team uses an app to help keep patients motivated and keep track of their progress.

Using a walker can be scary, particularly for our heavier patients. The upper limit of what a 10.7mm or 12mm PRECICE nail can support is about 85lbs per leg. The company is now saying that the nail can support even less weight (around 50lbs) to be safe and less liable. But the reality is that the nail is quite strong with axial load (that means straight pressure from above). The nail tends to fail in rotation, bending or twisting forces. And like anything else, if you are not making a lot of regenerate bone to help the nail out, then the nail can fatigue and break over time.

Our physiotherapists use all kinds of trick to help you learn what a safe amount of weight and pressure is on your legs.

In fact, we get our patients up and walking, same day as surgery, walking to the bathroom with a walker. Moving the patients early in the post-operative period prevents all kinds of complications (blood clots, pulmonary embolism etc..) and helps decrease post operative pain. Most of our patients are only on Tylenol one week after surgery! The key is that right after surgery patients are actually allowed to put their full weight on their legs because we haven’t started lengthening yet.

When standing, your weight gets divided into your two legs, so for most patients that weigh 160-170lbs, that means they can put their full weight on their legs when standing. The tricky part is when you’re walking and you transfer all your weight to one leg. That’s when it becomes important to support a good part of your weight in your arms, particularly during the lengthening process when we are creating a gap/regenerate. The other tricky part is climbing stairs or getting in and out of a car, which can increase the weight on your legs significantly. Our physiotherapists specifically practice this with patients before they leave our facility, so that they feel confident and safe about this at home.

Stretching is of course the most important part of this whole process! We have a strong preference for patients staying in Montreal for 3 months to complete their lengthening with us…. But sometimes patients feel so good after the first month that they think they can do this back home. It is important to remember, this is a marathon! The first couple of centimeters are fairly easy, but the physio you do even when its easy is preparing your body for when we get closer to the end. The last two centimeters can be a little more difficult and we have all kinds of trick to help our patients get the whole 8cm. Like using Botox….

To find out more about how and why we use Botox check out our next blog!