Many doctors say that you should only consider limb lengthening surgery when you have a height below x percentile or have a limb length discrepancy.

Supposedly, having distraction osteogenesis surgery(another name for limb lengthening surgery) weakens the bone. It is possible however that the weakness is as a result of the surgery only lengthening the tibia and not the fibula. And, that if you lengthened the fibula as well the bone would not be weaker.

Their is no logical reason why limb lengthening surgery would weaken the bone. I can speak from personal experience of having broken bones that the bones are just as strong as before.

But there are reasons why you should never have limb lengthening surgery. Any time you have surgery performed on you, you are at risk for DEATH. Any benefit from limb lengthening surgery is not enough to produce a significant impact in sports unless you take limb lengthening surgery to extreme levels. Doctors have performed distraction osteogenesis to success even in the mandible and the spinal column.

Distraction osteogenesis has provided us with valuable data for all those who wish to be taller but now it is an archaic method that outlives it’s usefulness. Future height increase methods will be more elegant like lateral synovial joint loading. Methods like lateral synovial joint loading have the potential to release mesenchymal stem cells by microfracture of the trabecular bone. If you didn’t know, mesenchymal stem cells are what produce the growth plate in the first place so it may in fact be possible to create an entirely new growth plate.

Doctors have grown an entire ear on the back of a rat. If they grew an ear on top of a human head then you would be taller by the length of the ear.

Scientific progress happens at an exponential rate. Their is no reason to undergo limb lengthening surgery when new advancements are right around the corner.