Your transportations are included in limb lengthening services we provide. After your flight has landed, AFA patient responsible will pick you up. You will be transferred to your 5-star hotel where the AFA LL center is located. AFA provides all airport, doctor consultations, hospital, xray and emergency transportation. AFA patient responsible will be with you during the transportations. Transportation will be provided by comfortable VIP vehicles.

For pre-operative planning, your surgeon will evaluate you in detail. After your surgeon examines your x-ray and your physical condition, he will inform you about the method, surgery and process. All your questions will be answered by surgeon at the consultation. If necessary, the patient responsible will accompany you for translation.

After the pre-surgery hospitalization, many tests will be done for the surgery. If there is no obstacle to do the surgery, you will be taken to the operating room. Your surgery will be performed under general anesthesia (generally). Surgery includes reaming of the intramedullary canal, osteotomy, insertion and locking of the intramedullary nail, and fixation according to the preferred method. All your incisions will be smaller than 1 centimeter and will be closed with aesthetic sutures. The operation takes 2-3 hours in the internal methods and 3-4 hours in the LON method. After your surgery is completed, you will be taken to the wake-up service and then you will be taken to your room where you will spend the hospitalization period.

You will be under 24-hour control in the hospital for 7-10 days after the operation. During the hospitalization, you will be accompanied by the AFA caregiver and will meet all your needs. A serum, vitamin, mineral, blood thinner and pain reliever medication protocol will be applied. Your blood values, blood pressure and respiration will be checked daily. Your surgeon will come to examine you every day. On the 2nd day after the operation, your surgeon and physiotherapist will give you gait training. If your blood values are at a normal level, physical therapy will probably start from the 3rd day. In-bed positioning will be done to prevent edema and contracture. According to the method applied, your lengthening procedure will be taught to you by your surgeon during the hospitalization period. Lengthening usually begins 7-10 days after surgery. After the hospitalization is over, you will be transferred to the AFA Limb Lengthening Center, where you will complete the lengthening period and have other limb lengthening services.

As it is one of the essential limb lengthening services, we provide an accommodation option for you too. After the hospitalization , you will be placed in your international 5-star hotel where your lengthening process will be completed. The hotel and the AFA physical therapy and hydrotherapy centers are located in the same building, so you will be able to receive your daily treatments without leaving your comfort zone, and the AFA staff will be at your side for all your needs. This is a suit hotel where you will find everything you need inside the room. Including your washing machine and kitchenette tools. You can cook in your own kitchen or you can order some western food from the hotel’s restaurant. Btw, you will love the view.

Physical therapy is the most important thing during your lengthening phase so it is required daily. AFA has been founded by a proffessional physiotherapist who is specialized in Limb Lengthening and familiar with the patients who had undergone the operation. So AFA does not put the daily physical therapy as an option, it does insist on providing it to you daily. So we put compulsory 5 days of physiotherapy to your surgery package (each session takes 2 hours). The experience that AFA physiotherapists have will be crucial to ensure a positive outcome by maximizing strength and flexibility, and will help you to prevent complications. Physical therapy will be done in AFA Physical Therapy Center.

The buoyant force of water reduces the load on the joints and muscles. Therefore, it is an effective and safe form of treatment applied in the post-limb lengthening period. Complications such as tension in soft tissues (muscle, nerve, fascia, tendon), edema, gait disturbance, loss of balance, pain, and decreased range of motion may occur after limb lengthening surgery. Hydrotherapy is a very effective treatment method in the prevention and reduction of these complications.With the lifting force of the water, the weight applied on the internal nails is reduced and all the movements and exercises that the patients cannot normally do can be done safely in the water. As AFA, we effectively apply hydrotherapy to our patients in the accompany of our expert physiotherapists. Our hydrotherapy sessions are held where you stay as well. You will have hydrotherapy sessions 2-3 days a week.

Your essential x-rays are also included in the package of limb lengthening services. Orthorontgenogram xrays are taken before the operation and after the lengthening is completed in order to measure the bone length, anatomical angles and to determine the deformities. Lengthening period x-rays are important for a close follow up to check if your lengthening process goes smoothly or not. The condition of the new bone tissue(callus), the bone alignment, and many other factors are evaluated by the surgeon in xrays and action can be taken before complications occur. So you will be taking an x-ray twice in a month directly where you stay without leaving your comfort zone.

For those patients who undergo the surgery with internal methods may only need to do dressings for a few times during the hospitalization. They can take showers, use the pool, they can consider using little waterproof band-aids to prevent their scar areas from water. But for those who undergo the surgery with external methods, regular dressing is a must and should be done 2-3 times a week. But we can assure you that your pin sites will stay clean, once you have any slight symptoms of infection it will be taken under control by our professional team members.

It is very important to follow the patient closely during the lengthening period. Quality of the lengthening, check of callus(new bone) tissue, examination of pin and wire locations, examination of physical condition, examination of complications are necessary. The surgeon checks the condition of our patients on a weekly basis. The surgeon visits the AFA Limb Lengthening center regularly to check patients’ x-rays, complications and physical condition.

Well, when you get to your lengthening goal, removing your fixator will be your biggest and the best dream of all times. After reaching the targeted length, fixator removal surgery is performed. Bone length, osteotomy length, whole leg length and callus (new bone tissue) quality are checked by taking an x-ray of the entire leg before the removal surgery. If there is any leg length inequality, extra time is given to the patient for equalization. If the callus tissue is of sufficient quality, the date of surgery is confirmed. The surgery is performed under general anesthesia. The surgery takes about 2 hours. The hospital stay after fixator removal surgery is usually 1 day. In the hospital, physical examination and gait control are controlled by our surgeon and his team. After the surgery, the final checks are made with xray and the patient is taken out of the hospital. A week-10 days after removal, if your incisions are closed up you can take a shower.

After the bone healing is completed, that is, after the callus tissue is sufficiently dense and hardened in the consolidation phase, the bone becomes full weight-bearing and the intramedullary nail can be removed from the bone. The time required for the removal of the intramedullary nail usually takes 1.5 – 2 years. Surgery approval is given by our surgeon by evaluating the patient’s xray. Postoperative hospital stay is usually 1 day. After the operation, the patient can walk with a full weight bearing. After the intramedullary nail is removed, all process is completed.