Infection Causing Severe Kyphosis
On Dr. Rinella’s mission trips to Colombia, he encountered two children becoming paralyzed from severe kyphosis. In both cases, tuberculosis caused the spine to break down and lean forward, placing severe pressure on the spinal cord. With the help of his advanced team, he was able to reconstruct the spine and save the children’s ability to walk. The child on the left was only 2 years old, and the child on the right is 5 years old.
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Severe Scheurmann’s Kyphosis
A 45 year old woman noticed that her hunched back was leaning forward every year causing a severe amount of pain. With time, she needed many pillows to sleep because her back was no longer flexible. After several years of strengthening her spine, she agreed to undergo a spinal fusion. After surgery, the majority of her back pain went away, and she was able to stand up much straighter.
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Transition Syndrome/Flatback
A 52 year old gentleman had several surgeries to treat an L4-5 degenerative spondylolisthesis - a common form of arthritis that causes low back and leg pain. After multiple failed surgeries, he presented to Dr. Rinella with extreme back and leg pain, and he was unable to stand up straight. A lumbar spine myelogram (an xray with special contrast so we can see the nerves) demonstrated the level above the fusion collapsed, and there was significant pressure on the nerves. Dr. Rinella performed a pedicle subtraction osteotomy and was able to take the pressure off the nerves, and restore the normal curvature to his lumbar spine so he could stand up straight.
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