Liposuction and Plastic Surgery Information - Chinese warned against leg stretching on the rack

Chinese warned against leg stretching on the rack

Thursday, 19 October 2006

Chinese patients opting to have their legs broken and extended through stretching on a rack have been warned that this type of cosmetic surgery could be dangerous and is inadvisable.

The Xinhau news agency reported that 10 people were disfigured last year after undergoing the leg stretching procedure at the Beijing Xiangshan hospital. The patients had been referred from a Chinese website that advocates "height surgery with no pain." Amazingly, leg-breaking-and-extending is popular among young professionals "desperate to climb up the ladder in the country's height-conscious society", Xinhua said. The news agency made no comment on whether people with broken legs were the best candidates to be climbing ladders.

"Leg-lengthening surgery is a clinical orthopaedic treatment, not cosmetic surgery," said agency spokesperson Mao Qunan.

"Leg-lengthening surgery must only be carried out for strict medical reasons and performed in authorised hospitals."

While the growing affluence of sections of the Chinese population has fuelled growth in demand for cosmetic surgery, this has largely been confined to procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation and rhinoplasty. However, a person's height requirement is usually specified in job recruitment or school admission policies, with women normally required to be at least 1.65m and men 1.7m. Additionally, many Chinese associate a potential mate's height with his or her suitability as a partner.

The surgical procedure originally developed in Russia to in an attempt to treat patients whose legs had been disfigured by either by accidents or birth defects such as dwarfism. The surgery costs between $15,000 and $25,000USD and can take 2 years for patients to fully recover.

Tags: China, cosmetic surgery, surgery safety,