This afternoon we helped a 58 yo gentleman who had a L2-S1 instrumentation and fusion done a year ago up in Baltimore, MD, who has had increasing back and R leg pain and trouble walking over the past year.
His CT scan shows stenosis at the 2 levels above hhis existing fusion, and possibly some residual stenosis L2-5.
Today, I removed the old hardware, explored the fusion, and extended the fusion up to T12.
I then decompressed the dural nerve sack from T12 all the way down to L5, including removing residual bone spurs, ligament and scar.
His X-Rays are shown here, and the next blog shows a short video of the dural sack fully decompressed, and palpating out the neural foramen at each level using a special tool called a “Ganz 4”.
His nerves are now fully decompressed, and spine stabilized.
He did very well during the surgery, which took approximately three hours and 45 minutes.
Estimated Blood Loss (EBL) was 450 cc, and he did not require a transfusion.
He was doing well in the PACU for my postoperative check this evening, and will get up and around tomorrow.
Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.HeyClinic.com