Limb Lengthening Forum
Limb Lengthening Surgery => Limb Lengthening Discussions => Topic started by: SpeedDialer on October 08, 2021, 10:13:16 PM
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1. What are the most common mistakes people make that make it easier to accidentally miscount clicks?
2. What are the most common body/leg position mistakes people make when trying to do a click?
3. What are the pros/cons of clicking nail (gnail, albizzia, etc) versus precise 2.2 for internal tibia?
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The main pro of the clicking nail is that it is weight-bearing, otherwise you will be in a weelchair with precise until stryde or a new weight-bearing nail is back
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1. What are the most common mistakes people make that make it easier to accidentally miscount clicks?
2. What are the most common body/leg position mistakes people make when trying to do a click?
3. What are the pros/cons of clicking nail (gnail, albizzia, etc) versus precise 2.2 for internal tibia?
1. Not recording clicks. Also, not being careful after the lengthening phase and accidentally clicking without taking record.
2. Everyone has their own favourite position they need to figure out for themselves. The biggest mistake is never the position but a lack of stretching and relaxation prior to clicking. It’s particularly important to be able to handle it mentally, you know, the fact that one part of your bone rotates while the other doesn’t. Yes, that is what will happen a thousand times or more :)
3.
Advantages of clicking nails
1. Weight bearing
2. Weight bearing! I had to mention this twice because it’s so important for recovery, quality of life, preventing thrombosis etc.
3. Significantly better control over how much you lengthen. Precise is notoriously inaccurate and needs weekly x rays.
4. Cheaper
5. You can have MRI scans, which is not possible with precise
6. Precise can cause unbearable pain during flights
7. Precise is more complicated and this more likely to break
8. If you’re very young, mechanical nails will counteract early consolidation better.
Disadvantages
1. The clicking can be painful, especially in the beginning. Many patients have to return for anaesthesia clicking. Many find the clicking sound as well as the sensation disturbing.
2. Those who find clicking easy are prone to accidental clicks. This is bad if it happens during the consolidation period. It means you have to be careful for a while.
Despite the disadvantages, the precise nail is no match for a weight bearing nail with so many advantages. In my opinion precise is not suitable for cosmetic procedures altogether. If you’re scared of clicking then you should wait for another product.
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"1. Not recording clicks. Also, not being careful after the lengthening phase and accidentally clicking without taking record."
Do you think for most people a simple paper/pencil small notebook with tallies is the best way to record clicks?
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"1. Not recording clicks. Also, not being careful after the lengthening phase and accidentally clicking without taking record."
Do you think for most people a simple paper/pencil small notebook with tallies is the best way to record clicks?
I don’t think it’s the “best” way (everyone has their preferences i guess) but it’s perfectly fine.
I personally recorded my clicks with a pen during the clicking session, like do five clicks, write it down, then do five more and so on. After I was done with the clicks for the day I transferred it to an excel spreadsheet which calculated my current progress in cm, my current height in the morning and evening, my projected height given a certain amount of clicks in the future, how many clicks I had done in total, how many clicks remained towards my goal, how many days had passed since surgery etc. If you want to automate all of this information like that then excel is quite good.
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2. Weight bearing! I had to mention this twice because it’s so important for recovery, quality of life, preventing thrombosis etc.
3. Significantly better control over how much you lengthen. Precise is notoriously inaccurate and needs weekly x rays.
4. Cheaper
5. You can have MRI scans, which is not possible with precise
6. Precise can cause unbearable pain during flights
7. Precise is more complicated and this more likely to break
8. If you’re very young, mechanical nails will counteract early consolidation better.
Hey Don, while I agree with you on the advantages of weightbearing, I don't completely agree with some of your other advantages.
3) Precise is quite accurate in its magnetic lengthening measurements.
4) Betzbone is actually more expensive than Precise
5) MRI scans are relevant to perhaps cancer patients, or those with severe illness who should not have been permitted to do this surgery in first place.
6) Betz told me this too, but no precise patients over the past decade on this forum has corroborated this.
7) The reason why Precise would break is because of its titanium build. Its electronics are in a sealed compartment.
8) This is another one of Betz' myths. Precise has enough force to lengthen without significant physical exertion. The reason why some patients have trouble clicking is because the mechanical force applied on your knees is indirect and therefore not all of it lands onto the nail.
We also forgot to mention 2 other advantages of precise.
1) Publicly available data. The reason why stryde was withdrawn is because it was used by doctors worldwide and therefore they could not push it under the rug. While we did not face any nail-related complications, many Albizzia patients may have. We simply do not know.
2) Titanium is softer than chrome-cobalt. What this means is that it makes better bones. Dr. A just confirmed that he saw better bone consolidation with Precise than Stryde, which is stiffer like Betzbone.