Short Segment surgery technique?

[maxinegerb]

I read an interesting article in the Spring/Summer 2005 issue of the National Scoliosis Foundation's newsletter "The Spinal Connection". It was about a relatively new surgery technique called "Short Segment Bone-on-Bone". It's a technique which involves fusing a much shorter segment of the spine. It's being done by Dr. Robert Gaines in Missouri. At first I thought it was primarily being done on adolescents' thoracic curves. But I wrote to Dr. Gaines and he assured me that he'd been successfully using the technique on adult lumbar curves. Since I'm not planning on having surgery in the near future, I look forward to learning more about this technique as it matures.

If anyone has any information or insight about this, I'd be very glad to hear about it.

Thanks,
Maxine

[LindaRacine]

Hi Maxine...

There was quite a bit of discussion about this technique at last week's Scoliosis Research Society annual meeting. What I got from the comments is that many physicians feel that this technique will lead to an increased kyphosis. I thought of you during one rather heated discussion, when one surgeon said something like "I will guarantee this patient will end up back in surgery within a year" during a case presentation where the patient had multiple bone-on-bone segments done, such as would be done in your case.

Obviously, no one will know one way or the other for some years, but it's something to consider.

Regards,
Linda