Teenager with spinal deformity cured through new medical technology : MUMBAI

A 14-year-old girl, born with scoliosis, a sideway curvature of the spine which also caused her breathing issues, has been treated using a new technology called 3D C-arm and spinal navigation, which helps corrective surgery to be performed more accurately, said doctors on Wednesday.


Disha's problem started after her deformity became noticeable after she turned 10. Her condition started worsening in terms of appearance when her parents noticed her prominent ribs, disproportionate shoulder level and an uneven hump on the left side of the hip when she bent over.

Doctors said the scoliosis also created discrepancy in the length of her legs.


"She started having problems in breathing as the area in the rib cage region was confined drastically. When she arrived at our clinic, her long erect x-rays revealed significant scoliosis as result of D12 hemivertebra. This basically means that her 12th thoracic vertebra was half in size," said Arvind G. Kulkarni, head of Spine Scoliosis and Disc Replacement Centre at Bombay Hospital.


Only the right triangular half of the vertebra was formed and the left half was missing, which led to bending of the spine on the missing side, leading to scoliosis. The right shoulder blade was more prominently protruding along with one hip higher than the other.



The doctors said that though surgery was the only solution they chose to do it with the help of the new technique which creates a virtual image of the curved spine on the screen and optimised the placement of the pedicle screws and rods with close to 100 per cent accuracy.


As the condition was progressing with time, the highly-challenging deformity correction and spinal fusion surgeries was performed with the help of the new techniques.


"The use of neuromonitoring as well as spinal navigation increases the safety of deformity surgery thus minimising the risk of spinal cord damage. We utilise the services of spinal navigation and neuromonitoring to make deformity correction surgery extremely safe.. She has recovered well and is now confident about her appearance," said Kulkarni.




Source : Business Standard , 21st June 2017

Rashid Hospital surgeon corrects spine curvature with a novel, first time surgery in the UAE

* Degenerative scoliosis of a woman in her sixties using a minimum invasive method *

Rashid Hospital doctors succeeded in correcting the degenerative scoliosis of a woman in her sixties using a minimum invasive method used for the first time in the UAE. The Arab national came to the hospital complaining from backache and leg pain due to degenerative scoliosis.

Rashid Hospital doctors succeeded in correcting the degenerative scoliosis of a woman in her 60s using a minimum invasive method used for the first time in the UAE.

Degenerative scoliosis, which usually starts after the age 50 is a side-to-side curvature of the spine caused by degeneration of the facet joints and intervertebral discs — which are the moving parts of the spine. This causes backache to excruciating sensations that shoot down the leg, commonly referred to as sciatica, which can make walking difficult or impossible.

Dr Najmeddeen Attabib, consultant neuro and spine surgery at Rashid Hospital who conducted the operation said: “We conducted a two-stage surgery using a new technique called endoscopic assisted oblique lateral interbody fusion. While this method is evolving all over the world, it is the first time in the UAE that this method was used with endoscopy allowing for minimal invasive treatment.”

Dr Attabib explained that in the first phase, a small incision is made from the side of the belly and by working in an oblique angle cages are inserted to correct the curve allowing the foramen to open up and reliving the patient from the pain that was caused by the deformity squishing the nerves.

He added that in the second stage, percutaneous pedicle screw insertion was done with minimal invasion so that the bones heals together.

He said that the alternative to the surgery, would have been a much invasive surgery where a big incision in the back and front. Such surgeries have a higher morbidity risk, cause more blood to be lost and hence her hospital and healing process would have taken longer.

“The advantages of the surgery conducted is that it is minimally invasive allowing the patient to heal faster. Following the surgery, the patient was happy as the pain she suffered from was relieved and she was discharged shortly,” Dr Attabib concluded.

 

 

 

Source :  Gulf News , 27th June 2017