Height-increasing surgery could be dangerous: Experts

GUANGZHOU: Orthopedic specialists have warned image-conscious people to be "seriously cautious" about undergoing the Ilizarov procedure, a risky surgery that makes people taller but "could also lead to partial paralysis".

The warning came after a 25-year-old woman from Guangzhou, nicknamed Xiaomei, was left crippled in her lower right leg after undergoing the procedure at the Guangzhou Yuandong Cosmetics Hospital.

In the Ilizarov procedure, which entered mainstream medicine in the late 1980s, the bones of a patient's lower legs are broken and separated, then allowed to grow back to span the gap.