If you're a guy who's long yearned to be just a few inches taller, Dr. Kevin Debiparshad says he's your man. The Harvard-educated surgeon based in Las Vegas is the subject of a profile by Brittny Mejia for the Los Angeles Times on the time-consuming and often cringe-inducing process of leg lengthening, which the 43-year-old doctor became interested in as a med student at a pediatric orthopedic clinic in Vancouver two decades ago. At the time, he worked under a more senior doctor who could "grow kids' legs." "It seemed almost magical," recalls Debiparshad, whose patients call him "Dr. D." "When I saw that, I knew that I had to do this somehow."
That "magic" doesn't seem like a comfortable process: A surgeon first wedges a chisel-like tool called an osteotome into the patient's leg bone, hits the tool with a mallet dozens of times to weaken the bone, then moves the leg until it snaps "like a wishbone." A titanium rod is then placed in the patient's leg, and they're directed to use a small device to stretch the rod a tiny amount per day (about a millimeter) over a stretch of months. "People think about breaking a bone and sticking a rod inside and slowly stretching you out—it sounds like a torture chamber," Debiparshad says, adding that it's "a lot more palatable than people think."
So how much does this all cost? Insurance doesn't cover it, and it can run around $78,000 for the femur and $84,000 for the tibia—and that doesn't count the $15,000 to remove the rod. Debiparshad says complications can include rare blood clots that work their way up to the lungs, though he says none of the 100-plus patients he treats annually (mostly men) have had that. More here, including the story of an Indiana teen who had the surgery—also useful for shortening limbs—to boost his height from 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10. (More leg lengthening stories.)
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