Other services - Spine surgery
Intervertebral discs are constituents of the spine structure providing a solid link for the vertebrae and in the same time allow some movements of the spine segment in question. They also work as some kind of shock-absorber. They are assimilable to inflated car tyres providing stable contact between the road and the wheel and also somewhat attenuate the vibration caused by the bumpiness of the road.
This function is allowed by the disc’s special build-up, having a strong fibrous ring - also similarly to car tyres encompassing an inner core with large fluid content and gel-like consistence. Just like other tissues, our discs also loose their fluid content throughout life and their elasticity decreases (“deflation”). One episode of this process may be disc herniation (“flat tyre”) when a part of the cartilage pushes into the spinal canal and takes the space from the nerves running there, or in other words exerts pressure on these nerves. It typically leads to complaints affecting the limbs, pain, numbness and weakness. This phenomenon can also be described as space narrowing and accordingly, the surgical solution is the release of nerves.
However, the loss of disc elasticity (degeneration) may have other consequences if its ability to allow well controlled movements of the neighboring vertebrae also gets damaged. This phenomenon is called instability, which typically causes local pain that increases upon effort. The surgical therapy of this problem is stabilization.
The simplest and most frequently performed release surgery is the removal of disc hernia (discectomy). Most often, such interventions become necessary at the lumbar spine or the middle or lower cervical segment but rarely, disc hernia surgery may be performed at the thoracic spine as well.
A similar surgical intervention is decompression performed in case of bony spinal stenosis and recalibration, its more extended version aiming to restore the extensions of the operated spinal segment. If stability of the spinal segment is lacking even before the surgery or if it gets injured in the decompression phase of the surgery, the affected spinal segment needs to be stabilized during the surgery (stabilizations and fusions).
The aim is to restore the stability of the spinal segment by bony integration of two neighboring vertebrae or two separate parts of one vertebra. In certain cases, only bony material (usually the patient’s own bone) is implanted without metallic stabilization. In such cases, the patient has to wear an outer stabilizer temporarily (for a few months) until the expected bony integration is complete (where fusion takes longer to be complete, a metallic stabilization is also performed in the majority of cases).
Internal stabilization is performed using modern, tested and approved materials; previously, these were made of stainless steel, and now the most common material is metal (titanium), which has an elasticity significantly closer to that of bones, its loosening is less likely and in the same time it does not have a chemical, biological or physical interaction with the body (that is, there is no corrosion).
It is a well-known fact that 80 to 90% of people feel back pain at least once in their lives, which goes away spontaneously or following treatment but may recur any time. If spinal surgery can be avoided, the treating physician may recommend various medical therapies, infusion, and other conservative treatment options with an average duration of 5 days of treatment. Individual physiotherapy and massage once a day is usually also part of conservative therapies in addition to specialist examinations.
Primary and secondary prevention may be applied in addition to spinal surgery related tot rehabilitation and traditional conservative therapies, even when the patient has no symptoms at all. Both methods play a markedly important role in health-preservation: in the latter case it serves to prevent further worsening of the already developed spine condition and provides an overall support for patients to lead an active life.
