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A cosmetics clinic in Guangzhou has been ordered to close for providing  an illegal surgical procedure that makes people taller but which could lead to partial paralysis.

The Guangdong Yuandong Cosmetics Hospital has carried out more than 100 such operations since 2004, in which the bones of a patient's lower legs are cut and separated, then  allowed to grow back to fill the gap. Although illegal, the procedure is still widely available.

It is not clear how many patients have suffered injuries after  the procedure, but 25-year-old Xiaomei in Guangzhou said she had been crippled in the lower right leg after the gap failed to close, China Central Television  reported yesterday.

She paid the hospital at least 45,000 yuan in March 2005 to have her height increased by 8cm  to 160cm.

Cosmetics clinics on the mainland charge between 40,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan for the procedure, but despite the huge cost an increasing number of image-conscious mainlanders  sign up.

The 'Ilizarov procedure' is named after a Russian orthopaedic surgeon, Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov,  who invented it in the 1950s.

Qiu Guixing, an orthopaedic specialist with the Chinese Medical Association, said it had been a mainstream medical procedure to treat limb deformities since the late 1980s, normally costing about 10,000 yuan.

But Dr Qiu added that the procedures were still highly risky, 'so strictly speaking, it  should be used only as a medical procedure [for its original  purpose]'.

Nevertheless,  mainland cosmetics clinics began  touting the procedure in 2000 as a reliable operation, though they were not allowed to provide such services under a licensing regulation issued in 2002.

The Ministry of Health rushed to ban the procedure  in October last year after at least 10 mainlanders who underwent the operation at a Beijing hospital in 2005 experienced pain or a lack of strength in their legs, and even suffered limb deformities.

But despite the ban, some cosmetics clinics continue to offer the services.

Zhang Chunjiang , a manager with Beijing Gaolemei Height Increase Medical Research Institute, told CCTV  they  had more than 10 patients on the waiting list for the Ilizarov procedure.

Mr Zhang boasted that they had carried out more than a thousand such operations since 2000 and  never encountered problems, 'as  [the height increase procedure] is much safer than driving on the road or working in a coal mine'.

But  a patient who underwent operations at the institute said she was now partially crippled in her lower legs, according to the CCTV report.

One local hospital in Beijing's Fengtai district received more than 60 patients in the last two years for medical treatment after they underwent the procedure.

An unspecified number of patients who have gone for similar procedures in Hebei , Liaoning , Henan  and Zhejiang  also complained of various degrees of injuries after having the operations.

On the mainland, height has become increasingly important in recent years, with many employers turning away applicants who fail to make the cut.

For example, for those looking for a future with the Foreign Ministry, men must be at least 1.7 metres tall  and women 1.6 metres.



Clinic closed over height-gain surgery