Tracking Your Limb Lengthening Progress: A Documentation Structure

A Log Supports Care; It Does Not Make Decisions

The purpose of a patient-held log is to preserve what was prescribed, what occurred, what was measured, and what the clinical team decided. It should never be used to self-interpret regenerate, change distraction or loading, or defer urgent contact.

Core Record Set

• Operation and discharge reports, implant card, current phase, responsible clinicians, and emergency contacts.
• Current written distraction, loading, therapy, wound, medication, VTE, and imaging plans.
• Original DICOM images and reports, not only screenshots or verbal summaries.
• Allergies and reactions, medication changes, and the clinician who authorized each change.

Daily Distraction Record

• Date and time of each prescribed session or frame adjustment.
• Programmed increment, whether it completed, device message, and cumulative total shown by the device.
• Any missed, repeated, painful, or uncertain session and who was contacted.
• Do not add sessions to make up a difference unless the treating team gives a documented instruction.

Clinical and Rehabilitation Measures

• Joint range of motion with the same method, plus strength, sensation, motor findings, gait aid, and permitted load.
• Pain location and character, swelling, temperature if instructed, wound or pin-site observations, falls, and new symptoms.
• Therapy attendance, home exercises completed, functional milestones, and missed targets.

Imaging and Decision Log

• Study date, facility, views, calibration, phase, and cumulative prescribed distraction.
• Date and name of the clinician who reviewed it and the documented interpretation.
• Any resulting change, its effective time, and the next review date.

Urgent Symptoms Do Not Wait for the Log

Chest symptoms, new major weakness, circulation change, severe or rapidly worsening pain, suspected compartment syndrome, uncontrolled bleeding, or another emergency goes to local emergency care under the written plan. New nerve symptoms, infection signs, sudden motion loss, device failure, or unexpected swelling requires prompt contact. Record the event after care is underway.

Make the Record Portable

Keep a concise current summary plus the underlying source documents. Export from portals before access expires, store encrypted and offline copies, and share only through a patient-matched clinical channel. DICOM preserves image and study metadata that a screenshot can lose. ^[1]