Korean Plastic Surgeons Performing O Shaped Leg Curvature Correction Surgery For Genu Varum aka Bow Leggedness

Due to the nature of the website and research we look at, we see all sort of interesting cosmetic surgical procedures. This new one which the commenter William called “O Shaped Leg Surgery” is something which I forgot to mention on this website. It is something many people indeed go through to remodel their very bones to the shape that they desire.

So what is O Shaped Leg Surgery?

It turns that that there is this orthopedic condition medically called Genu Varum which is commonly known as Bow Legs or Bow Leggedness. Sometimes the condition can be confused with another type known as Blount’s Disease. The leg bones are curved into a “bow” shape. The curvature is usually most visibile in young kids who are toddlers, still going through massive growth. For most people, that curvature visible when they are young kids starts to go away as they reach their teenage years. Some kids though have very pronounced curvature.

It seems that if the kid who has Genu Varum is young enough, using a band and splint to slowly bend the leg bones would be enough. However, if the kid is too old, then surgery will be needed to correct for the curvature. The tibia or fibula would be cut and then bent. We found this before and after picture. Notice how what is considered attractive is where the legs go direct downwards. The legs which are bowed would create the “o” shape in the space between the legs.

The cosmetic surgical procedure corrects for the bending of the leg bones to make the legs look straight. I am guessing that from the legs being made straighter, they are also longer after the surgery. The result is that the person gains maybe 1-2 extra centimeters of height from the procedure.

So what is mentioned by the commenter is that after the surgery, the patients only need about a single week of recovery. How that is possible and how bones can be snapped into the straight shape is something I haven’t been able to figure out yet.

Apparently now there are even products being sold on Amazon to correct for bow leggedness. Refer to here to see what the non-surgical strap device looks like (Not an affiliate link).

For me, products like this leg strap is something which I will never understand why a person would want to use. Is the angled nature of the legs really that big of a problem?

I remember once going to see a local Orthopedic specialist in Seattle who happened to be Japanese himself. I asked him whether I was bow legged and he replied that for most people, there will be some slight bit of bone curvature. Bone curvature is normal. Having that perfect O Shaped Legs where the knees are not supposed to touch is actually uncommon.

This seems to be a real, serious problem which affects millions of young kids causing them to have abnormal walking gaits and slight deformed legs. If the surgery is done, the developing child would expect to not only have their medical condition resolved but also end up maybe a few centimeters taller.

Side Note:

The fact is that during my almost 2 years stay in living in the Gangnam area of Seoul, South Korea I remember seeing these huge posters in the subway stations of the Gangnam-Gu area like Apgujeong, Sinsa, and Gangnam. There are before and after pictures showing the lower legs of a young girl or men who has a slight bit of bow leggedness with the eyes blacked out from getting the surgery.

When you turn on the TV in Seoul or go to the movies in the previews, you are blasted with advertisement by half a dozen large plastic surgery clinics promoting the benefits of going under the knife to “improve” one’s appearance. It is so epidemic in Gangnam that I started to believe the advertisement after a certain point.

I took the time to clip a post written back in Oct of 2012 on another website about how the mother of an elementary school girl took her daughter to get surgery to become taller. The daughter was supposed to be put through some type of stretching machine. (Source)

It is totally possible that the reason I have become so accepting of the idea of limb lengthening surgery and other bone cutting surgery to alter one’s body shape is due to the fact that I was an expat living in the Plastic Surgery Capital of the world for a little too long. My own personal perception of what is considered ethically acceptable about cosmetic alterations has become skewed from seeing so many people walk past me in the last 2 years with changed appearances.

I don’t advocate doing surgery for everything but for this medical condition, I think it is worth looking into getting surgery.