Three weeks ago today on my first day back from Haiti, we “straightened up” a 12 yo girl named Brittany @ WakeMed in Raleigh. She had a 48 degree upper curve and 58 degree lower curve, but fortunately had wonderful correction of her lower 3 disc spaces on bending films, so we were able to spare 3 discs below.
Brittany’s surgery took around three hours, and her evoked potential sensory and motor function was normal throughout surgery. Preoperatively, she had 2 very noticable humps on her back, both of which were down to almost nothing by the time I finished closing the skin.
She did not require any blood transfusions, but we did give her back blood from the cell saver.
Since she was only around 75 lbs, with a small thin frame, I used the pediatric low profile instrumentation, to lesson the chance of the hardware irritating her soft tissue, or being palpable / visible at the level of the skin.
Postoperatively, she did great in the hospital, not requiring an ICU stay, so her mom could stay with her in the hospital room both nights.
She is now recovering well at home, with a nice email from her mom and dad reminding me to post the X-Rays as I had promised.
Sorry for the delay, Brittany! It’s been way busy!. My scoliosis surgery and family life are interfering with my Blog and writing career!
🙂
Maximizing preserved motion segments, while still maximizing curve correction is key to long-term success. In fact, today in clinic I saw a very pleasant 42 yo woman who had scoliosis surgery back in 1972 by Dr. Coonrad, who was here at Hey Clinic to have her young teenage daughter screened for scoliosis. Dr. Coonrad saved 3 of the lower discs below her double curve, and now 36 years later her discs below look just great, and she has no significant back pain. Historically, patients who had long Harrington Rod fusions with only one or two discs remaining preserved did not do as well as those who had 3 or more (3 doing better than 2, doing much better than just 1 disc remaining). Having more shock absorbers is better than fewer.
Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS
http://www.heyclinic.com
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
Raleigh, NC USA