Hyderabad: A big debate has started among orthopedic doctors in the city, some who say that limb lengthening and reconstruction surgery for increasing height is not advised for healthy patients. One goes through six months of rehabilitation, a lot of limping and pain.
The issue is in focus as Global Hospitals carried out the surgery on one Nikhil Reddy (24). Mr Reddy had not informed his parents about the procedure. Senior orthopedic doctors say that it is “unethical to carry out a surgery for height reconstruction” without any valid physical or psychological grounds.
Experts say that limb reconstruction surgery is done in cases of accidents, congenital defects, non-alignment of limbs due to injury and also for bone tumours. Doctors add that it should not be carried out on people who only want to increase their height.
Senior orthopedic surgeon Dr Sudhir Reddy said, “There are many factors which must be considered before opting for this surgery. It is not illegal but a normal individual will have many complications like muscle pains, and also there are chances of the bone breaking.
Six months of agile mobility of the patient is lost and he or she has to take a lot of care.” Another senior doctor on condition of anonymity said, “The patient will have to be assisted by a family member for the various chores and also has to ensure he or she does not fall. This is very important as it can lead to complications.”
Another senior doctor said that these surgeries were opted only for adolescent people when “skeletal growth” was taking place. “At 24-years-of-age the acceleration of growth will be a tedious task. Hence under what medical grounds was it taken up must be studied,” said another senior orthopedic doctor in the city.
According to sources in Global Hospitals, Mr Nikhil Reddy had been visiting the doctor for one year and he had been counselling and told about the complications that might arise.
A senior officer said: “But he was convinced that he was not getting a good match due to his height. He appeared psychologically troubled and insisted that the operation must be done.”
