The latest methods of treating spine diseases allow not only to get rid of pain, but even to practice sports. Until recently, back surgery was associated with high risk and long recovery. Today in Poland, minimally invasive procedures are performed, after which patients can immediately return to normal activity.
– A 25-year-old jockey, who fell off a horse and injured her spine, would have been wearing a plaster corset for three months until recently. During this time, her muscles would start to decline, so after removing the plaster, she would need rehabilitation for several months. Thanks to the new method of spine surgery, after three days she left the hospital fully functional and quickly got on a horse again – says neurosurgeon Dr. Paweł Jarmużek from the Lubuskie Center for Neurosurgery and Neurotraumatology in Zielona Góra. Another patient, who was struggling with a congenital defect of the spine, set off on a motorbike on a 300-kilometer route a few days after such surgery.
A busy spine
Spine ailments are one of the most common diseases of civilization. It affects younger and younger people. Mostly people between 35 and 50 are sick. Lack of physical activity, sitting in front of a computer for hours, stress and overweight make degeneration more and more common. The spine is a brilliant structure that supports the weight of our body and protects the spinal cord. And there is something to protect, because it is he who transmits information flowing from the brain, thanks to which we can move our limbs, feel touch, temperature and pain, and control physiological functions. The spine is made of 33-34 vertebrae arranged one on the other, separated by flat plates of gelatinous mass – the so-called disks. If the discs are damaged as a result of osteoarthritis, they move around, putting pressure on the nerves, causing severe pain. Discopathy can affect any part of the spine and cause pain radiating to the extremities, pelvis, shoulders, chest or head. – It not only chases the sick to bed, but also threatens with permanent consequences, such as foot paresis, urinary and stool incontinence, and impotence – says Dr. Jarmużek.
You don’t die from that
Until recently, spine surgery was a last resort for many patients. Patients with discopathy accepted their disability and lived in constant pain. It was said that you don’t die from this, so you have to suffer. Meanwhile, the disease made my professional career difficult and excluded from social life. However, patients were concerned about postoperative complications. Many felt that surgery could confine them to wheelchairs instead of helping them. – Today the saying: do not operate and walk while you can is becoming a thing of the past – says dr Jarmużek. He adds that now neurosurgeons can even make it possible to return to competitive sports. This was the case of Szymon Kołecki, the winner of the silver medal in weightlifting at the Beijing Olympics, who had previously undergone disk removal surgery.
As it used to be
– When I started my professional career, the patient after spine surgery was lying in bed for 10 days. Then the six-month rehabilitation began. Today, patients get up the next day, and after two or three they leave the hospital – says Dr. Jarmużek. In the past, such operations lasted from one and a half to even several hours, today they have been shortened to half an hour, which means that the patient does not have to risk long-term anesthesia. Thanks to this, it is possible to improve the quality of life for even ninety-year-olds. Previously, the treatments were very strenuous. To get to the spine, it was necessary to cut open the muscles and arches of the vertebrae. The sick were losing a lot of blood. Now the muscles are spreading and you don’t have to breach your spine to remove the damaged disc. Spine surgery is one of the most dynamically developing fields of medicine. The progress in the last 10-15 years has been tremendous. Particular development is noticeable in spine stabilization techniques that do not require extensive surgery. Such treatments are the basic method of treating diseases such as: degenerative diseases of the spine, e.g. cervical or lumbar discopathy, strictures of the spinal canal, displacements, fractures, curves, e.g. scoliosis, kyphosis.
- Read more: Spine treatments
Three small holes
– Today, thanks to the small size of precision tools and the fact that they are integrated with surgical navigation, imaging systems and neuromonitoring, we can perform complex spine operations through small 2-3 cm skin incisions, while maintaining greater precision without damaging the nervous structures – explains Dr. Jarmużek. Surgeons like console players hold joysticks and stare at the screen. In this way, they can remove the damaged disc, and in patients with an unstable spine, insert a rod stiffening the movable section. – The use of minimally invasive methods of percutaneous treatment not only reduces and corrects spine deformities and eliminates pain, but also allows the preservation and improvement of neurological functions, and above all, a quick return to daily activity – says the neurosurgeon.
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