New Member, lots of questions!

[LindaRacine]

Now for my first question, I thought he told me the rods would run from T4 - L4 but he would only be fusing the bottom three disks, that the rods would hold the rest of the spine in place. Has anyone ever heard of this?or did I not understand what he was saying? I will be seeing him again before the surgery, as I called and asked for another consoltation because I have so many questions.

Thanks,
Patty

Hi Patty...

If there is no fusion, the rods will eventually break. I wonder if Dr. Bains talked about both anterior and posterior surgery. If that's the case, I suspect that what he told you that he'd be fusing the bottom 3 discs from the front, and all vertebrae from the back.

--Linda

[sccrm08]

Hi Patty...

If there is no fusion, the rods will eventually break. I wonder if Dr. Bains talked about both anterior and posterior surgery. If that's the case, I suspect that what he told you that he'd be fusing the bottom 3 discs from the front, and all vertebrae from the back.

--Linda

Hi Linda,

First off, thanks for all the replys, I had to leave town on a family emergency.

The Dr. did say I would have both Anterior and Posterior surgery and the disks he would be fusing would be through the Anterior part of surgery. I understood the posterior to be for the rod placement.

What is the difference between fusing a disc and a vertebrae, is it the same thing?

At my next appt., my sister in law will be going with my husband and me, she has watched her daughter go through this surgery twice and will be very helpful with everything as I am very overwhelmed.

The Scoliosis surgeon I am seeing is Dr. Bains at the Oakland Medical Center in Oakland CA.

Thanks,
Patty

[LindaRacine]

Hi Patty...

Discs aren't actually fused. To fuse the front of the spine, the disc must be removed. To fuse the back of the spine, only tiny pieces of bone are removed.

You can see animations of both procedures here:

Front:
http://www.spine-health.com/dir/interfus.html

Back:
http://www.spine-health.com/dir/bonefusion.html

Unfortunately, I can't view the animations (probably because I'm on a Mac). In the front surgery, they may or may not use cages. On the back surgery, they may or not use implants. (If I could view them, I could tell you.)

You can also see animations here:

http://www.understandspinesurgery.com/

You'll need to navigate to see what I'm talking about. If you aren't successful on your own, following these directions:

Click on Understand the Procedures, enter your ZIP code (use 94108 if yours doesn't work), click on Ivan Cheng, click on Spine. You may need to enter your email address. To view a scoliosis surgery procedure from the back (posterior), click on Find by CONDITION: Scoliosis, then on Derotation with Instrumentation. Follow the onscreen instructions.

To view something similar to scoliosis surgery from the front, click on Spine, Find by REGION, Lumbar, then on Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF).

I hope that makes it more clear. If it doesn't, you might want to read Dave Wolpert's book "Scoliosis Surgery The Definitive Patient Reference."

Regards,
Linda

P.S. Dr. Bains is great.