How do you adjust growing rods?

The new rods, known as MAGEC rods, are magnetically adjustable with an electromagnet. We do not keep an electromagnet in Ethiopia, but our FOCOS partners in Ghana fly over with a magnet a couple of times a year. Recently, they adjusted 15 patients with the rods, which takes a few minutes each, and is painless. 

For patients with normal growing rods, it is about a 15-minute surgical procedure, performed under general anesthesia. They generally spend 1 night in the hospital for this.