I had never even heard of such a procedure.

Amazing. I just wish they had said in which cases it is used (I'm guessing bone cancer since they mentioned chemo)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Quite amazing.

*WTF?!?!

How often does it occur that a person needs only their knee amputated?

Wouldn't a prosthetic knee or knee reconstruction work just as well?

Invocations (wtf) cannot be called by GenjiKilpatrick because GenjiKilpatrick is not privileged - sorry.

2 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

No...NO!...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Between when i was 19 - 24 years old I wrote all the software in a robotic bone lengthening device. It is highly related to techniques like this (and is hinted at in this video... "if the knees dont line up, another procedure is done...") the other procedure is called the Ilizarov technique.

We automated the Ilizarov technique with motors which stretched a "somewhat broken" leg 1,440 times per day, nanometers at a time, adding up to a single millimeter of "stretch" per day. This enables you to grow an inch taller every 25.4 days.

I attended many operations and bolted the motors onto the devices. One guy in Alaska had blown almost his complete tibia/fibula off with a shotgun. The doctors simply brought the foot up to the left over stub of bone, attached the motorized cage and began lengthening the bone again. In about 120 days he had grown his entire missing calf back. (It will never look the same ; ) but it is completely functional.

We also put our device on an Atlanta Falcons player who had a shortened AND rotated foot after a football break. Simple -- break the leg again, put it in a frame, and then lengthen AND rotate the leg by 1mm in each axis daily. This only took a couple weeks compared to the months for the shotgun injury.

I saw them break many bones in the operating room with chisels.

I am sure there are some Youtube videos explaining the "Ilizarov" technique and showing the frames.

I'm like waiting for the College Humor logo at any time... this can't be serious ?
Unbelievable technique that I can't believe I hadn't heard of before.

Between when i was 19 - 24 years old I wrote all the software in a robotic bone lengthening device.

Does this robotic lengthener work on other "bones", if you know what I mean? (cause I don't).

*promote all things health-related

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, October 30th, 2010 7:44pm PDT - promote requested by Tymbrwulf.

wow... wooooow

*anatomy

Adding video to channels (Anatomy) - requested by Hybrid.

Whoa, wai... wha?

It's easier to turn the foot around instead of the rest of the body.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

WTF?!?!
How often does it occur that a person needs only their knee amputated?
Wouldn't a prosthetic knee or knee reconstruction work just as well?


Bone cancer, bro. You don't want that spreading. Better to have a foot/knee.

> Does this robotic lengthener work on other "bones",
> if you know what I mean? (cause I don't).

Dunno, but two things might keep you from trying:

1) they chisel the object to be lengthened to break it internally
2) they put pins through it on all sides to install an external frame

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The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 2:56 - length declared by GDGD.