重新开始行动
Surgeon’s minimally invasive spinal procedure usually
让病人在几小时内回家，而且没有痛苦
吉姆·豪报道
Susan kahn摄影
Anyone can hurt their back by lifting something heavy. The resulting pain may come from a herniated disk, also called a slipped or ruptured disk. Some people whose injury does not heal become candidates for a 手术 done through a tiny incision, 快速恢复.
2022年夏天，上州神经外科医生 Ali Hazama，医学博士, operated on Julia 布莱尔, 22, now a senior majoring in psychology at SUNY Potsdam. 布莱尔 was amazed to be so quickly relieved of pain she had since fall 2021.
布莱尔, an attacker on the college’s women’s varsity lacrosse team, injured her back while deadlifting during a workout in November 2021. “I must have had the wrong form, or maybe too much weight,” she recalls. “I felt like I pulled something in my back, and a day later, I had shooting pains down my left leg,”
她等待着. 疼痛并没有消失. She saw a chiropractor, who had her do some exercises.
The pain persisted as the 2021 autumn training season gave way to the spring 2022 lacrosse season. 布莱尔 only played in a handful of her team’s 16 games. She saw a doctor who ordered an MRI scan of her back and referred her to Hazama for possible 手术.
因为布莱尔的痛苦不会自己消退, Hazama recommended a procedure called endoscopic lumbar 椎间盘切除术 (见下面的相关报道). He showed 布莱尔 images of the spinal endoscopic tool he would use to remove the disk fragments that were pressing against a nerve and causing her pain.
The tool allows 手术 with a tiny incision instead of a traditional, 或打开, 手术, 那就需要更大的切口了, then further cutting through large amounts of tissue to get to the problem area, with a lengthier and likely more painful recovery period.
“Endoscopic spine 手术 is an ultra-minimally invasive technique that really is built around preserving normal body tissue and directly treating the problem without introducing any further damage to the body or the spine,Hazama解释道.
“你为病人省去了手术的痛苦, the pain that comes not just from the problem that someone comes in with, 而是来自于正常组织的实际切割, that lasts for days to weeks after a traditional 手术,哈扎马说. “That’s why these patients are usually extremely happy with the results of the surgeries.”
Hazama, 神经外科助理教授, notes that this procedure cannot be used for all spinal problems. 但除了椎间盘突出, it can relieve the pressure of spinal stenosis and be used to perform corrective procedures, 比如脊柱融合, 还有脊柱活检.
一开始布莱尔一想到手术就害怕. “我太紧张了, 结果就像小菜一碟, and the doctor and all his staff there were incredible. They made me feel so good about having this done,” s他说.
手术, 于2022年5月在北州举行, 持续了不到一个小时, 几个小时后她就回家了, 这个过程中典型的是什么. She recalls feeling no pain on the three-hour car ride back to her home in Massena, 包括停下来吃晚饭.
“我立刻松了一口气，”她回忆说. As she got up from the table after eating and walked to the car, 她兴奋地意识到:“我感觉不到任何疼痛.” 朋友 and family who had watched her struggle to put on her own socks saw a huge difference.
A follow-up exam a month later showed the operation had gone well, and Hazama said she could resume all her normal activities, 包括长曲棍球, 她已经做到了.
Hazama notes that over-the-counter pain medications are typically tried first, while waiting to see if the condition improves on its own, 就像对布莱尔那样. More than 80% of patients who come to him with back problems will have their problem resolved without undergoing 手术, 他自豪地分享着这个数据.
But for those whose spinal problem doesn’t resolve by itself, endoscopic spinal 手术 offers a route to getting back to one’s normal routine. 这种手术已经存在很多年了, but recent advances include high-definition images that display the patient’s anatomy in realistic detail to guide the surgeon, 他说.
“It’s really a paradigm shift in terms of treating spine patients, where a lot of people think that spine 手术 is extremely invasive, 手术后疼痛持续了好几个月.”
“Julia’s prognosis is that she’s basically back to normal and has no limitations.”
什么是内窥镜腰椎间盘切除术?
The endoscope device that provides images from inside the patient to the computer screen in the photo below.这是一种微创手术 内窥镜, 一种带有铅笔大小管子的装置, which a surgeon uses to insert tiny tools for cutting, 切除并烧灼组织. A tiny camera and lights transmit high-quality images of the affected area to a computer screen.
腰椎 指的是下背部.
A 椎间盘切除术 is the removal of the damaged portion of a herniated disk. 椎间盘是椎骨之间的橡胶垫, 或者是一堆骨头组成的脊柱, which surrounds and protects the nerve tissue of the spinal cord. When the outer wall of a disk dries out or weakens with age or injury, 软, 内部凸起, 导致椎间盘突出. This can press on nerve tissue and cause pain, tingling or weakness.
This article appears in the spring 2023 issue of 推荐最近最火的赌博软件 Health magazine.
Neurosurgeon Ali Hazama，医学博士, with a screen showing the image provided by the endoscopic device. Hazama擅长内窥镜脊柱手术, 减少切割, 疤痕, 疼痛和恢复的时间.
