My TSRH rods are broken!!!

[dalmatica]

My surgery was way back in Dec. of 98. I am fused from T3 through L5. I was pregnant in 2005 and had a very easy pregnancy, only gained 22 lbs., and delivered via c-section with general anethesia. After that, it was all down hill with my low-back pain. Actually it is in my sacral area. After two years of injections to try to dull the SI and sciatic pain, my doctor x-rays me today to find that BOTH of my rods are completely broken apart around L3! He said that he has never seen anything like this and it should have never happened. I am scheduled for a CT myelogram next Tuesday. Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

[HGD24]

I am so sorry that you've having to go through this!

I am fused T3-L4 and am hoping to be pregnant again soon. I was pregnant last Fall, but we lost the baby at 20 weeks. I had been experiencing some SI pain after the delivery, but getting back to the gym has seemed to relieve it. I had x-rays of my back done 10 weeks after and all was fine with my hardware so we know for sure that it was the SI joint. I am looking ahead to future pregnancies though and was wondering if you know if the breakage is related to your pregnancy or is it something that happened over time? Thanks for any information you could share.

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

If you search here on broken rod, you'll see it's happened to a few people. If your scoliosis specialist was the one who said he'd never seen anything like this, I would be a bit scared.

Dr. David Bradford, widely considered one of the top scoliosis experts, told me that broken rods almost always means that the patient has an area of non-fusion. The good news is that the repair is usually a relatively easy surgery.

Regards,
Linda