The Fusion Of Spinal Fusion

For the duration of my surgical follow through experience, I had the pleasure of following RF. RF is a 49 year old male with an admitting diagnosis of cervicalgia cervical herniation, and a scheduled surgery for an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion at C4-C5 and C6-C7. According to Sharon Lewis in “Medical Surgical Nursing”, the cause of a cervicalgia cervical herniation is “the result of natural degeneration with age or repeated stress and trauma to the spine.” (Lewis, 2011) The follow through process was observed from when the patient arrived in the pre-op holding area until the

The good news is that I am done growing, which means I will stop wearing the scoliosis brace. This is a great relief to me, as the brace I wear 16 hours per day, is like a plastic corset, extremely uncomfortable and confining. The bad news is that my spinal curve has increased yet again. Now, at a 43 degree curve, I meet with a pediatric spinal surgeon. The doctor suggests I wait six more months as he monitors my advancing curve closely, and then the consideration of a spinal fusion is the next step. The fusion is a major surgery where they place two titanium rods in the upper thoracic region of my spine and fuse the affected

Imagine that you have been called to an area where bones have been found. What would you do at this spot to help you better understand what happened?

Once doctors have diagnosed a patient with scoliosis and have determined the severity, they will begin treatment. There are three main categories of treatment: observation, bracing, and surgery (Davis, 2017). Nonstructural scoliosis can be treated with indirect treatment of the spine. An example of this may be putting a wedge in the shoe of a patient in hopes of evening their leg length, thus causing the spine to correct itself. The majority of people with structural scoliosis, which is incurable, will need surgery in order to lessen the curvature of their spine since observation and bracing is usually insufficient (Davis,

IAT is reporting they received an adverse verdict in the amount of $2,305,376 on 10/13/16, with likelihood the plaintiff will be awarded additional monetary damages based on jurisdictional laws.

MRI of the cervical spine obtained on 06/26/13 showed mild degenerative spondylitic changes and status post posterior fusion.

My neurosurgeon, husband, daughter, and I agreed to a plan. On February 18, he will be removing the right side of my hardware from my skull down to C-2/3 where he will saw the rod in half and leave the rest of my fusion. The right side of my fusion has failed. While removing the fusion, he will be taking four screws out of my brain and one out of my neck. My fusion was placed nine years and two months ago; therefore, it has been in my body for a long time. He is leaving in the left side of my fusion, which is from my skull to C-5 because my neck is not stable enough without it. After he removes the titanium hardware, he will be taking a cadaver bone as well as removing bone marrow from my hip to rebuild my skull. He has to cut down the

MRI demonstrates severe narrowing of the right fouramen due to severe collapse at L5-S1. EMG demonstrates positive radiculopaty. The claimant has severe back and right leg pain. The claimant has a positive EMG. The claimant has an MRI which demonstrates up and down stenosis in the foramen at L5-S1, compressing the L5 nerve root due to severe collapse of the L5-S1 disk. The claimant has elected to proceed forward with an anterior interbody fusion at L5-S1 with an anterior decomprssion and stabilization. The claimant has severe collapse of the L5-S1 disk resulting in foraminal stenosis. The provider states a posterior decompression alone would be inadeqate given the severe collapse of the disk and the up and down

Recommendation was made for anterior cervical discectomy with fusion C5-6, possible C4-5. He has agreed to proceed surgically.

DOI: 8/24/2008. Patient is a 55-year-old female manager who sustained injury to her neck and back when she slipped and fell while walking down a set of pull out stairs. Per OMNI, she is diagnosed with cervical strain with radiculopathy and lumbar radiculopathy. She underwent C5-6 partial corpectomy and fusion in 05/31/2011.

People struggling with back and neck pain can become used to the administration of narcotic pain medications (also referred to as opioids). All narcotic agents have a dissociative effect that helps patients manage pain. While they do not actually deaden the pain, they do work to dissociate patients from the discomfort. Commonly used narcotics include Codeine, Hydrocodone, and Oxycodone.

On 7/15/16 I met Ms. Pletscher in the office of Dr. Easton. Ms. Pletscher had a cervical fusion on 6/15/16. Ms. Pletscher was driven to the appointment by her daughter. She was wearing a hard aspen collar. X-rays taken showed that there was good alignment with her hardware. She may now be fitted for a soft collar. The incision is well healed with no signs of infection. She will be allowed to start physical therapy after 7/29/16. An operative report was obtained. Ms. Pletscher had a list of questions. She is concerned about the left shoulder being lower than the right; she also said that it doesn’t seem to be tracking. I did point out that she had already been evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon and the MRA of the shoulder was fine. She agreed

DOI: 05/07/1980. The patient is a 73-year-old male foreman who sustained a work-related injury to his lumbosacral spine, left knee, and right heel when a pile of lumbar fell on him. Patient is diagnosed with lumbar post laminectomy syndrome, foot drop, and non-union fracture. He has a history of hypertension and diabetes. He is status post 3 back surgeries, laminectomy at L4 to S1 in 1973, bilateral decompression laminectomy and discectomy at L4 to S1 in 1981, and 2-level fusion with failed fusion in 1991.

This patient course provided two important clinical suggestions. First, selective spinal fusion allowed the patient to retain high-ADL and improved respiratory discomfort. Second, this surgery was less invasive and beneficial in early postoperative ambulation.

A review of the literature regarding spinal immobilisation has been undertaken using databases for PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, OVID and Cochrane EBM. Reviews were electronically searched using the subject headings “spinal injuries”, “spinal immobilisation” and “management of spinal injuries”. The results generated by the search were limited to English language articles and reviewed for relevance to the topic. The aim of this literature review is to compare and contrast the views on spinal immobilisation and to achieve a better knowledge of evidence based practice.