Dr. Axel Becker is a specialist in leg lengthening, a specialist in plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, a specialist in orthopedics and trauma surgery and carries out cosmetic leg lengthening in his special clinic in Freiburg. For this purpose – only here – a minimally invasive leg lengthening method BETZBONE®, developed by him and unique in the world, is used.

Today Dr. med. A. Becker, leg lengthening specialist from Freiburg in Breisgau, on the topic: Risks of infection during leg lengthening. Let’s listen:

“A big and important issue when it comes to leg lengthening is the risk of infection.

I can say that the infection issue is almost the most important thing in the whole process. Incidentally, this is also the reason why in the field of aesthetic leg lengthening people have switched from external leg lengthening systems to internal fixation systems. So to nails, which are implanted into the bone to lengthen it because you want to avoid the risk of infection. In very dramatic cases, such an infection ends with a failure of the leg lengthening and with a situation that may be worse than the initial situation. And you always want to avoid that for patients. Particularly when it comes to aesthetic procedures, you definitely want to avoid the resulting situation being worse than the initial situation. Ergo, it is important to avoid infection in any case. So at this point, let’s look at the internal fixation systems, the distraction nails. This shows that all internal nails have no connection to the outside, to the surface of the body, to the germ-inhabited skin. This applies to all nails. The risk of infection is therefore the same for all internal nails, i.e. identical. I’m not saying the risk of infection is zero, but it is equivalent. Almost exclusively related to the surgical procedure, to the wound healing phase.

At this point we must make a point and must clearly separate my statements up to this point from the following statements regarding the external fixation systems.

These external fixation systems all always have a connection to the skin surface. And in the worst case, not only that. In addition to the external fixator, patients often have a foreign material in the medullary canal that is connected to the body surface. (through the LON system, additional stabilization of the bone from the inside). This means that the patient is not only at risk of infection during the procedure, but also throughout the entire extension process. In plain language: There is a permanent risk of infection due to the connection of external and internal fixation systems. The worst possible situation. And the risk increases exponentially with the length of time the fixator is worn.”

You can find out many other important aspects about leg lengthening from the video sequences in our information library. You are also welcome to ask your questions directly to us.

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