I have been in touch with Dr. Kimura in the last couple of months and have been planning for the clavicle surgery with him. Risks and complications aside he said the most important thing for international patients is that the patient must be able to live in tokyo for 6-12 months. He said it has to be inside tokyo, as he wants to be able to see you immediately regardless of business hours if complications occur. He has rejected many domestic patients in the past because they lived next to Tokyo or farther.
He said the reason why the patient needs to stay in Japan for that long is that depending on the individual, long-term complications such as inadequate bone healing is possible, and in case any revision surgeries would be needed he would not risk letting any other doctor interfere until you are fully healed.
In addition the procedure must be split into 2 phases, left clavicle and right, because daily activities would be impossible with both clavicles operated on simultaneously.
As to the amount of shortening possible he said based on clinical studies of this procedure in Japan, a reduction of 10% in length produces no side effects to the movement of the arm after healing. Movement is partially impaired when reduced more than 15%, and is generally not recommended. He said the maximum he would do is 10%, and will not go beyond that for any reason. He said some of his patients were happy that they were able to wear women's L instead of 3L after surgery.
Also a second surgery would be needed 2 years after the procedure to take out the screws and stuff that lock the fractures clavicles in place as they would no longer be needed once the healing process is done.
I talked to him on the phone and he was quite a talkative person. He gave lots of helpful information to me and after all I think it would be something I would like to pursue. He said the longest it took his patient to fully heal was 12 months, 6 months left and 6 right. It definitely is a huge commitment but I still think it is worth trying as I believe there definitely are people who have beautiful faces but cannot pass due to very broad shoulders. I cannot go to Japan right now as I have my FFS scheduled with Dr. Spiegel in March, but I am hoping to go to Yeson for VFS in April and after which going to Dr. Kimura in May if everything goes well.
Please let me know if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I can. I can read Japanese articles and do more research for you if you are interested.
Best,
Yuna
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
