Stature lengthening. Yerevan, Armenia
The bone is cut once, moved apart one millimetre a day, and fills the gap with new bone of its own.
By an orthopaedic surgeon trained under Ilizarov. Yerevan, Armenia
Stature lengthening with Prof. Arshak Mirzoyan, MD, DMedSc, who learned distraction osteogenesis in Kurgan from the man who invented it, in a JCI-accredited hospital, with one coordinator beside you for every one of the ninety days.
No deposit to ask a question. Replies within one working day. Measured in centimetres, decided from X-rays.
They wanted to stop calculating. To stand next to someone without arranging themselves. To walk onto a court, into a room, into a photograph, and think about something else. Height does not change who you are; it changes how often you have to think about it.
Stock and illustrative images, not patients. Our patients are shown privately, with consent, at consultation.
In 1951 a surgeon in Kurgan noticed that bone, cut cleanly and pulled apart slowly, fills the gap with new bone of its own. Gavriil Ilizarov spent the rest of his life perfecting how slowly, and how to hold the bone while it works. Prof. Mirzoyan spent nine years in his institute learning it. This is the same biology, four steps long.
A precise, controlled cut through the femur or tibia through small incisions. Nothing is forced; the bone is simply given a place to grow.
From the fifth to the seventh day, the two ends are moved apart in four gentle quarter-millimetre turns a day. Eight centimetres takes about eighty days.
In the gap, your body does what it already knows how to do after any fracture. New bone forms along the line of tension, guided by the nail.
Over the following months the new bone hardens into bone indistinguishable from the rest. Strong, permanent, and entirely your own.
Lengthening rate, total gain and candidacy vary by patient and are confirmed by your surgeon from your X-rays.
Four quarter-turns a day, about three centimetres a month. Scroll, and watch eighty days pass.
Not to scale. The rate is adjusted by the surgeon from your X-rays every two weeks.
The most-chosen method for cosmetic lengthening. An internal nail carries the load while a lightweight external frame guides the daily distraction; the frame comes off once the length is reached, and the nail stays until the bone is solid.
The original frame, in the hands of a surgeon who has used it since 1980, for cases where a nail is not the right answer, and the LATN variant where a nail is placed after lengthening for stability.
For patients planning more than 8 cm, lengthening both segments in a staged plan, 12 to 16 cm in total, with the proportions kept natural. Longer, more demanding, and only for patients who screen well.
A fully internal magnetic nail with no external frame is available on request for suitable cases; ask during your consultation.
Every decision, from candidacy to the day the frame comes off, is made on X-rays. On the left, a femur before surgery. On the right, the same bone after lengthening: the nail inside, and the hazy band in the middle that is new bone forming. Drag the line to compare.
Illustrative renders, not patient images. Real X-rays, with consent, are shown at your consultation.
After
Before
Enter your height and the gain you are considering. The surgeon decides what is realistic from your X-rays; most single-segment plans land between six and eight centimetres.
172 cm 180 cm (5 ft 7.7 in to 5 ft 10.9 in)
Ask what is realistic for me
Today 172 cm
After +8 cm
Illustrative figures, not patients. Proportions are schematic.
Your surgeon
Orthopaedic surgeon in practice since 1980. From 1980 to 1989 he trained and worked in Kurgan at the institute of Prof. Gavriil Ilizarov, the inventor of the method. He defended his doctoral thesis on the Ilizarov technique, helped establish an Ilizarov centre at Aalborg Hospital in Denmark, taught as a visiting professor in Portland, Oregon, and in 1998 founded the Yerevan Center of Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction, which he still leads. He is a member of ASAMI and the ILLRS, honorary professor of the Ilizarov Centre in Kurgan, and the author of three monographs and more than sixty papers.
There is no definite price for a centimetre, and there is no honest surgeon who promises one before he has seen your X-rays.
He operates at a JCI-accredited hospital in Yerevan; its name and accreditation certificate are shared with every patient at consultation, before any payment.
Full profile and publicationsThis is not a weekend procedure. The patients who do best are the ones who chose it with clear eyes, so we begin with the truth about the road.
Send your X-rays and a short history. Prof. Mirzoyan reviews them personally and tells you, on a video call, what is realistic for your anatomy and whether he would operate. Sometimes the answer is no. We think that honesty is the point.
A single procedure of three to five hours under general anaesthesia, followed by about 4 nights in a private room with your coordinator visiting daily.
The daily millimetre, done by you in your apartment in four small turns, with physiotherapy five days a week, a nurse for pin-site care, and an X-ray every two weeks so the surgeon can see the new bone forming.
When the length is reached, the frame comes off in a short procedure and the nail takes over. You fly home and the bone hardens over the following months while you rebuild strength and range of motion.
Walking unaided, then stairs, then sport. Reviews with the surgeon by video at three, six and twelve months. Our relationship with you is measured in years, not weeks.
Five sessions a week. The physiotherapy is not an extra; it is the half of the treatment that decides how well you walk.
Instant estimate
LON lengthening, all-inclusive
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See the full breakdown and what changes the priceThe same procedure is advertised at $26,400 in Turkey and from $84,000 per segment in the United States. We publish our price because a patient deciding about his own bones deserves to know it before the first conversation.
Yerevan is a quiet, walkable capital of cafes, tuff-stone streets and a mountain on the horizon. It is also, for a patient who must live somewhere for three months on a walker, a place with elevators we have checked, taxis that come to the door, and a cost of living that makes a long stay possible. Our coordinators live here. So, for three months, will you.
Your stay in YerevanWe measure success in centimetres, but our patients rarely do. They talk about photographs they no longer avoid and rooms they walk into differently. Because discretion is the rule here, stories and X-rays are shared privately during your consultation, with the written consent of the patients who chose to tell them, rather than published for the open web.
Individual results vary. Any story we share is with explicit patient consent and lightly edited for privacy.
The ones many clinics gloss over. Here is the straight version; your surgeon covers all of it, in full, at your consultation.
Limb lengthening is major orthopaedic surgery and carries real risks: infection at pin sites, nerve or joint problems, slow bone healing, and the possibility of further procedures. Careful selection, a surgeon who has managed these for forty years, and close monitoring keep those risks as low as they can be. We walk you through every one before you decide.
Most patients gain 6 to 8 cm from one segment. More is possible with a staged femur-and-tibia plan, within what your anatomy and proportions allow. The surgeon decides from your X-rays, not from your wishes or ours.
The surgery itself is under general anaesthesia and the first days are managed with proper pain relief. Distraction is more discomfort than pain: tightness in the muscles, disturbed sleep in the early weeks, and soreness at pin sites. Honest patients call it hard and worth it. We will not call it anything else.
Plan on 10 to 14 weeks in Yerevan for a single-segment LON lengthening, then consolidation at home. Staged plans take longer.
You are not left alone with it. Complications are managed by the same surgeon in the same hospital, and our written revision and support policy is shared before you pay anything.
Small incisions for the nail and pin sites that fade over the first year. We show you photographs of healed scars at consultation.
Yes, from the second week for most desk work. Every property has fibre internet and a desk.
Surgery is performed by a licensed orthopaedic surgeon in a licensed, JCI-accredited Armenian hospital. Statura is a registered medical-travel facilitator; our role, and its limits, are written in our terms.
A private consultation is the first step. No commitment, no pressure, no sales call. Send your questions and, if you have them, your X-rays; you will hear back from a person within one working day, and from the surgeon within a week. If this is not for you, we will say so, and tell you why.
Measured in centimetres. Decided from X-rays.