China has banned ill-legal leg-stretching surgery. This cosmetic surgery is very popular among young Chinese who are eager to enhance their looks and believe that height will help them to mount the ranking in their profession.
“Leg-stretching surgery for the image conscious has been banned by China’s Health Ministry after a spate of botched operations,” the Xinhua news agency reported.
The operation involves breaking the patient’s legs and inserting steel pins into the bones just below the knees. These steel pins are attached to a metal frame and everyday for months patient needs to tighten the knobs a small amount even though they suffer piercing pain. By continuously forcing the ends of the broken bones apart they can heal, more new bones come to fill in the opening.
This surgery has left many patients disfigured. The operation costs some 100,000 Yuan (£6,700) and it is often six months before the patient can walk without using a walking frame.
Many of such clinics are run by doctors who do not feel content with the package offered in the state-run hospitals. Chinese people have become very sensitive about their appearance which leads to the springing up of the cosmetic surgery clinics.
Chinese are generally not as tall as Europeans. But being tall has become an issue in China. Many young Chinese feel discriminated in their jobs if they are not tall and good looking. Obsession of looking taller and impressive is to the extent that men wear step heels and television advertisements show the footwear with its inches-giving insoles.
This concept of leg-lengthening was first developed by Russians. The initial step was taken by Doctor Gavril Ilizarov, who used bicycle spokes to heal fractured bones broken by gunshots. He later adapted this technique to lengthening limbs. It is now used all over the world but is rarely allowed for cosmetic reasons. But the technique of leg-lengthening was first conceived by Italians in 1905.
The health ministry said hospitals must in future tell patients about the risks involved, while only qualified personnel would be allowed to carry out the surgery.
