Hey Clinic Surgery (PM) Mon Mar 17 2008: 72 yo gentleman w/ Parkinson's, and severe spinal stenosis and degenerative scoliosis.

After helping Valerie who just turned 13 this morning, this afternoon we helped Duane (age 72!) , who has extreme difficulty walking, due to  multilevel lumbar scoliosis, flat back syndrome, and severe spinal stenosis.  The combination of his Parkinson’s disease with these spinal problems has really made it tough for him to get around, with leg weakness, clumsiness, and back and leg pain.

Surgery today went just great.
Fusion goes from T12 to Iliac wing bilaterally.
Laminectomy is from L2 through L5.  The stenosis was quite severe at multiple levels.
Two posterior osteotomies were performed to help improve his lumbar lordosis and standing posture.
Intra-operative X-Rays show excellent correction of his spinal deformity in both AP and Lateral planes.
Surgical time was 3 hours and 45 minutes.
No blood transfusions were needed.
No TLIF was needed, since L5S1 junction was already quite stiff and stable.
His wife was quite amazed by the deformity correction when I showed her the X-Rays in the conference room immediately after surgery.
I saw Duane in the recovery room (PACU) around 7:30 pm, and he was awake, comfortable, and doing very well.
Duane and Betty wanted to send word to their son in Washington DC that everything is fine, and wanted me to put these X-Rays up there so he could see.


Lloyd A.  Hey, MD MS
http://www.heyclinic.com
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
Raleigh, NC  USA