Lowering the Risk of Lumbar Procedure.
By Admin | May 11, 2020
Published: May 11, 2020
Would you be surprised to learn that the leading cause of activity limitation and absence from work around the world is lower back pain?
This fact may not be too surprising if you're one of the millions of people across the globe who experience lower back pain regularly.
The causes of lower back pain vary from person to person, but the primary contributor to the lower back discomfort is getting older and wear and tear on the joints.
Most people living with lower back pain are between 30 and 60 years old. After age 60, the risk of developing spondylosis, or age-related arthritis caused by wear and tear on the joints and discs that make up the spine.
While age is the primary factor of developing spondylosis, other risk factors include genetics, being overweight or obese, smoking, heavy lifting or repetitive motion, use of certain medications, and having psoriatic arthritis.
When these structures break down, the result is often impairment of the spine's movement, nerve problems, and the loss of some bodily functions.
There are four types of spondylosis, with the most common type being cervical spondylosis, a progressive type of the condition which affects the neck.
Statistics from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons show that more than 85 percent of individuals older than 60 years have some level of cervical spondylosis.
Other types of spondylosis develop in different parts of the spine, including thoracic spondylosis (middle of the spine), lumbar spondylosis (lower back), and multilevel spondylosis, which affects more than one part of the spine.
Just like the location of spondylosis can vary among affected individuals, the symptoms of the condition can vary, too. Some individuals do not experience any symptoms at all, while others have several symptoms, and still, others have symptoms that come and go.
The most common symptoms are pain and weakness in and tingling in the limbs. Severe symptoms include a grinding or popping sensation when moving the back, weakness in the legs or hands, loss of coordination, muscle spasms, headaches, and difficulty walking. Some
individuals experience a loss of bowel and bladder control.
If left untreated, spondylosis can progress into other serious and painful conditions. These conditions may include spinal stenosis, cervical, and cervical spondylotic myelopathy, a situation in which the spinal cord becomes compressed, resulting in pain and numbness in the limbs, inability to control hand movements, difficulty walking and bladder control problems.
If your spondylosis case is mild, you won't need treatment. Moderate cases often require self-care treatment, including over-the-counter pain relief medication, staying active with low-impact exercises, and improving your posture.
But if your case is severe, you made need surgery, which is what happened to one 56-year-old female with a history lower back pain. The patient also had a history of left leg pain and was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, radiculitis, and spondylosis.
To treat her multiple conditions, the patient underwent L5-S1 360-degree fusion surgery. During her procedure, the AXIS Neuromonitoring team monitored this patient by utilizing neurophysiological tests, including Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SSEP) and Electromyography (EMG).
AXIS, located in Richardson, Texas, is a leader in intraoperative neuromonitoring.
"Intraoperative neuromonitoring allows surgeons to know in real-time what is happening with a patient," said Dr. Faisal R. Jahangiri of AXIS.
And it did during this patient's procedure. Changes were noted in the patient's lower left SSEP signals during the Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF) portion of the procedure stage, which triggered AXIS' technologist to inform the surgeon of the situation immediately.
The surgeon was then able to lessen the amount of surgical retraction on the left side, but unfortunately to no avail. The area continued to experience decreased SSEPs.
After consulting with the remote online neurologist and the senior neurophysiologist, the technologist alerted the surgeon again, which resulted in the removal of the retraction. Sensory signals returned to normal levels as the baseline in the patient's left leg.
By telling the surgeon what was happening to the patient when it was happening, the risk of life-altering complications such as pain, numbness, muscle weakness, and mobility issues was eliminated.
Keywords: Spondylosis, back, arthritis, surgery, IONM, intraoperative neuromonitoring
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Source: News-Medical.Net. What is Cervical Spondylosis?
