questions: intubation, osteotomies

[barleygirl]

Dear Friends,
A couple of questions as I contemplate surgery:

1) My surgeon said I would be intubated during surgery because of some lung issues. Do you know if being intubated is common with spinal fusion? If you had it during surgery, did you have any particular problems with it?

2) I will have osteotomies in my fusion. Again, is this common? In Wolpert's book, he references them only in connection with revision surgery.

Just wondering here. . . .
Brenda

[JenniferG]

Hi Brenda. I had both. I have no recollection of intubation, it was gone by the time I woke. I didn't even have a sore throat, which I was expecting.

I also had osteotomies, not sure of how many. I am pretty sure there are others here who have had osteotomies as well.

[moxie]

Hi Brenda,
Endotracheal intubation is common during surgeries, especially under general anesthesia. It prevents anything from your stomach going into your lungs and it allows you to get the proper amount of oxygen and correct tidal volume (amount of air filling the lungs) that will help to prevent pneumonia later. It's generally safe with the main side effects being the tube is in the esphogas instead of the trachea; the tube is place in the right mainsteam bronchus and only inflating one lung and the teeth can be damaged. The equipment used today shows very easily the patient receiving oxygen so the first two aren't as dangerous as years ago. Most of the time the patient is extubated prior to waking. Occasionally, you may have a sore throat but not always. Hope that helps.

[Snoopy]

My daughter had osteotomies as well. We were told by doing them it would give her a better correction.

Mary Lou

[KathK]

I was surprised to read in my surgical report that I did have osteotomies. Dr Lenke had not said prior to surgery that he would do that. I did have a very rigid curve with a lot of arthritis. This was probably the only way he could achieve correction for me.

I don't know about intubation. I did not awake with a sore throat, although I had kind of expected to.

[KathK]

Looking at my surgical report again, I see that I was intubated. I did not have a sore throat from it though or any side effects.

I also have a "boomerang" cage. Don't quite know what that is, but it makes me feel a little Australian :-).

[mbeckoff]

I was inbutationed during my surgury.

I throught everyone was

Melissa

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

Scoliosis surgery could not be performed without the patient being intubated.

While osteotomies during primary scoliosis surgery are relatively uncommon, they aren't unheard of. As Kathy indicated, if the spine is stiff, the only way to produce good cosmetic results, or to get the patient balanced, is to do osteotomies.

Regards,
Linda

[Susie*Bee]

Hi Brenda-- I had two osteotomies done with my initial surgery. I'm assuming they might have had something to do with the lateral listhesis (side shifting/stair-stepping) of L2/L3 vertebrae that was nearby, but I don't know for sure. Best wishes!

If you want to see what the lateral listhesis is, then click on the link below my signature, where it says x-ray pics. Right now it's not working quite right, so when the pictures don't pop right up once you get there, look to the left and click on "pics of scoli x-rays". These old photos of x-rays show it better than the nice digital x-rays, because my doctor marked these up. The second x-ray (2006) shows it best. It makes you think a big shove would have been enough to knock them off! (not really)

[Snoopy]

Jamie's surgeon's recommendation was: "She would need in addition to a posterior spinal fusion, posterior Smith-Peterson osteotomies to shorten in a relative sense the posterior column to achieve improved correction." In his surgical report under indications it read: "We had recommended doing Smith-Peterson osteotomies to help correct posterior her kyphotic deformity unable to use pedical screw fixation due to the narrowed pedicles."

Mary Lou

[barleygirl]

Dear Friends,
Thank you for taking the time to reply! You all are amazing.

The concept of intubation is clearer to me now. In fact, Linda’s comment about spinal fusion surgery requiring intubation got me digging out my surgical report of last summer. I had a seven-hour surgery for removal of a benign brain tumor. If I had read the report more thoroughly in the past, I would have seen the term ”endotracheal anesthesia” and realized that that meant intubation.

Thanks for clarifying osteotomies, also. I know I have a rigid spine, so wish my surgeon good luck!

Best,
Brenda

[Doodles]

Brenda--I can't remember how many osteotomies I had--see signature info. I didn't know anything about them that I recall until afterwards. Probably had to due to age and stiff spine. Janet