Question
I was in a bad car accident 13 years ago. I had a burst fracture of the 3rd lumbar. After 4 surgeries, and a non-fusion, I have been on pain management, and not much else. The nurosurgeon
told me a 2 years after the final surgery, that unless I wanted to have a surgery, that would place rods up 15 vertebrae(with higher than 50% chances of paralysis) he no longer "needed or wanted to see me" unless I had some other bad thing like a fall, or accident.


My Question:

Are there any new surgical techniques, that might correct the spinal instabilities, & pain I suffer from, without such a high chance of me getting paralysed again?(I was during the 6 months it took, for my cord to stop the sweeeling, from bone fragments, which penetrated, & severed almost 1/3rd of my cord)

Kind Regards,

John C
Pittsburgh PA  

Answer
John:
There are many new techniques and new materials today that have made the field of spinal stabilization much more successful. If your spine is somewhat unstable and that instability is contributing to the pain, then I think you should consider a new operation. Pedicle screws with multiaxial instrumentation and the use of biological bone enhancers are some of the material I am talking about.

However, after 10 or 15 years, you may have already some nerve damage that maybe responsible for the pain. If that is the case, a new operation may not help. Despite of the advances fusing the bone of the spine, very little advance is out there to heal nerve damage. New techniques in pain management are nevertheless available to improve the pain caused by nerve damage. I would try to get an evaluation at the pain or neurosurgical clinics from the University.
FCM