Man 'grows' six inches taller after limb-lengthening surgery

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): A man in the US has undergone two costly procedures to increase his height by six inches.

At five foot, six inches, the New Yorker, who goes by the name Apotheosis, was shorter than the average American male and very unhappy about it.

So he did something other men who feel short might consider unthinkable: he opted for costly, painful surgeries to make himself "grow" a total of six inches.

"I realized that the world looked at me a certain way that I didn't look at myself in that certain way," ABC News quoted the 37-year-old, who only goes by his pseudonym in online forums, as saying.

"I wanted the way I felt about myself and the way the world felt about me to be similar," he said.

Apotheosis is just one of a growing number of men pursuing limb-lengthening procedures for cosmetic reasons.

Dr Dror Paley, a renowned orthopaedic surgeon at the Paley Institute at St Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, performed 650 leg-lengthening surgeries last year.

Most of his patients have severe deformities or dwarfism, but he also sees cosmetic patients.

"The majority who come for cosmetic limb lengthening have what we call, height dysphoria. They're unhappy with their height," Paley said.

He added that therapy has little effect on changing a patient's views.

"It's one of the few psychologic-psychiatric disorders that you can actually cure with the knife," he said.

Only a few doctors, including Paley, perform the procedure in the United States.

Surgeons break the leg bone in two and implant a state-of-the-art telescopic rod into the middle of the broken bones which then pulls the bone apart very slowly, about one millimeter a day.

New bone grows around it and tissues like the muscle, the nerves, the arteries, and the skin, regenerate as well.

At about 85,000 dollars, it is expensive lengthy process. It takes at least three months to complete it and requires demanding and excruciating physical therapy. (ANI)