He has been recognized by Best Doctors in America in 2009 - 2012, and 2015 - 2018 along with several additional teaching awards.
Over the past 10 years, Dr. Mehta has had extensive experience preforming numerous limb lengthening procedures throughout his practice. This includes the use of lengthening for clinical reasons including trauma, malunion/nonunion, cancer resection, disease (such as scoliosis, polio), congenital defect (such as hemimelia), as well as aesthetic reasons including dwarfism, premature puberty, constitutional low stature.
Total Aesthetic Limb Lengthening & Extremity Reconstruction (TALLER) Program
Your height doesn't define who you are. But for many people, being tall can add to your confidence, self-esteem and outlook on the world. If you would like to gain up to six inches of height, then the Total Aesthetic Limb Lengthening & Extremity Reconstruction (TALLER) program at Penn Medicine could be for you.
Get TALLER With Penn Medicine
The TALLER program is one of only a handful in the world and is ideal for people who want a discreet, less-invasive way to increase their height.
Achieve Your New Height in Months
The TALLER procedure lengthens either the femur (thigh) or tibia (lower leg) between ½ and 1 millimeter a day for approximately three months depending on the amount of height you'd like. And, because Penn providers use an advanced limb lengthening technology instead of the traditional approach, the procedure is discreet, involves minimal discomfort, and reduces any risk of infection.
Unlike other approaches that use a bulky, external "cage" and protruding fixtures, TALLER uses a device that is implanted within your leg and hidden from view. The process begins with a surgery to insert a mechanized rod into your leg. This is placed in either the femur, the tibia or sometimes in both bones. After the procedure, you'll use a magnetic hand-held device to rotate the gears of the rod from the outside of your leg each day. This causes the rod to extend slightly.
As bones lengthen, muscle, tendons, nerves, skin and arteries also respond and grow. The amount of time for the lengthening depends upon the desired height.
Once lengthening is complete and the bones have begun to heal, you will enter the recovery stage. This involves physical therapy and an increase in weight bearing activity.
The Penn Experience
The TALLER program is a service of the Penn Orthoplastic Limb Salvage Center, a globally recognized program that adheres to the highest standard of quality. The Center's surgeons are experts with extensive limb lengthening experience drawing upon the full complement of Penn Medicine's resources to ensure you receive exceptional care.
The TALLER procedure is considered an elective surgery, and as such, is not covered by insurance.
What to Expect
Our office is located at Penn Musculoskeletal Center – University City on the 7th floor within our Orthopaedics department.
We would schedule your initial consultation at this location with Dr. Mehta. He sees patients on Tuesdays. We would not schedule your surgery prior to your consultation, so if you are traveling from outside of the Philadelphia region, please plan on a second trip back for the surgery at a later date. We have listed below several hotels that are in close proximity to our office if you need to plan for overnight accommodations.
At your initial visit, we will obtain plain X-rays of both of your legs, as well as a standing scanogram which is an X-ray that takes a picture from your hip bones down to your feet. At this visit Dr. Mehta will discuss the surgical plan, the desired height, and what to expect. We discuss a surgical date during this visit.
Preparing for Surgery
We recommend that you maintain a healthy diet and healthy weight (BMI less than 30). There are no specific leg strengthening exercises that you need to do with physical therapy prior to the surgery. We will not perform the surgery on anyone who is actively smoking or using nicotine products due to nicotine severely impacting wound and bone healing. If you use nicotine products during your limb lengthening process, it can delay healing and lead to adverse outcomes. Dr. Mehta will take a full history during your consultation to rule out any comorbidities that may exclude you from surgery including osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, or any metabolic bone disease. Based on your past medical history, we may recommend that you have blood work and an electrocardiogram preoperatively. If needed, those could be performed that same day at our clinic.
Surgery would be performed at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (located across the street from our clinic) at 51 N. 39th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104. The actual procedure takes approximately 5 hours, which includes getting prepared for surgery by anesthesia through the recovery period in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit. You can expect to stay in the hospital for 2 nights after the procedure. During this stay, we will make sure your pain is controlled and that you are able to ambulate safely.
You will be able to bear weight on both of your legs immediately after surgery, but you may require the use of crutches or a walker for stability. The lengthening device that will be used can withstand 250lbs immediately after surgery, allowing you to bear weight right away. A physical therapist will work with you while you are in the hospital to help you walk with these devises.
Post Surgery
Once you are discharged from the hospital, you will work with physical therapy each day to work on leg strengthening exercises. If you are from out of town, we ask that you stay locally within the Philadelphia region for the first two weeks post operatively to work with physical therapy and come for your first post-operative appointment. Two weeks after your surgery, we will see you back in clinic with Dr. Mehta where we will take new X-rays to ensure everything is healing well, we will remove your staples, and we will have you begin using the external hand-held magnetic device to begin the lengthening process.
During the lengthening process, you will use your hand-held magnetic device two times a day. This will turn your internal rod 0.25mm each time for a total of 0.5mm a day. The duration of your lengthening process will depend on the desired height. Once you have reached your desired height, the lengthening device does not ever need to be removed unless it becomes bothersome.
You will be placed on a medication called Lovenox for two weeks after surgery. This is a small injection you will be trained to administer in the stomach every day. After two weeks, you will stop taking this medication and take aspirin orally every day for blood clot prophylaxis.
We will perform X-rays and have you follow-up in clinic every two weeks for the first six weeks, then again at three months and six months. If you are not located in the Philadelphia area, it may be possible to setup a telemedicine appointment to follow-up if this is more convenient. We would ask that you obtain X-rays at an outside location and have the images and reports sent to our office.
You will continue to work with Physical Therapy on gait training and leg strengthening throughout the lengthening process. We do not recommend running or high-impact activities during the lengthening period, however we do encourage you to engage in low impact activities such as a stationary bike and walking.
The TALLER procedure is considered an elective surgery, and as such, is not covered by insurance. The consultation fee to be evaluated for aesthetic limb lengthening is $500, which includes your visit with the physician and all imaging you will need to get that day. If any additional tests are needed, such as blood work, additional fees will apply. The consultation fee will be applied towards the total cost of a bilateral femur lengthening which is $100,000.00. This includes the cost of two lengthening devices, the surgical procedure, a two-night hospital stay, two weeks of physical therapy after surgery, and all post-operative appointments.
After your consultation, if surgical limb lengthening is desired, a $10,000 non-refundable down payment is required at least six weeks prior to surgery to confirm a surgical date. Full payment of the procedure is required two weeks prior to the surgical date.
Currently, Penn Medicine does not offer any financial assistance for this procedure. After surgery, any medications, crutches, walker, and ongoing physical therapy will be up to you and your insurance company to see what out of pocket costs they will cover.
Contact Us
To schedule your consultation please call us at 215-294-9654 or e-mail us at POLSC@uphs.upenn.edu
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Topic: Dr. Samir Mehta - Philadelphia, PA (Read 1257 times)