Victor Egonu, founder of the Cyborg 4 Life blog interviews S. Robert Rozbruch, MD, chief of Limb Lengthening and Complex Reconstruction Service at HSS, who discussed the details of stature lengthening. Dr. Rozbruch explained how stature lengthening fits into his practice, patient selection, recovery and more.

“The typical patient is a male patient who is 5’4”-5’5”,” cited Dr. Rozbruch. “5’4” is a two point fifth percentile for a male. It means that 97.5 percent of men are taller than that individual. That kind of reality is what creates the psychological problem for certain people. For some people it’s a non-issue, and if it’s a non-issue then clearly nothing needs to be done. But for some people it creates this feeling of psychological distress. I have noticed from talking to many people over the years - these are intelligent people who are pretty well adjusted and normal as anybody else’s normal in all other aspects of their life. But the issue of their stature is something that gnaws at them. They think about it all the time. Whether they think about it daily or every other day, or weekly. It impacts their self-confidence, their self-esteem. It impacts the way that they are able to interact with the outside world. If we can find people for whom this is a very specific issue and if those patients have realistic expectations of what can be accomplished and how this can change their life - those are the patients that we’ve had positive experiences with and positive success of their treatment,” he noted.

“We’re getting people up walking right from the get go, and a lot of the ability to walk without a limp has to do with hip muscle strength. It goes back to physiotherapy and making sure that you stretch and you strengthen. That’s a big and important part of the recovery,” said Dr. Rozbruch.

“I really enjoy the relationships that I develop with my patients. I get to know them. I like communicating with my patients. When they’re having difficulty I want to hear about it so I can help fix it. We’re very hands on and I think that is very important,” concluded Dr. Rozbruch.

Watch the interview at Cyborg4life.com.