Do not fear spine surgeries

12-year-old girl, training to be a classical dancer, was suffering from Scoliosis, where the spine gets bent; doctors say surgeries in such cases should be done before pubertyRashmi, a class 6 student, was training to be a classical dancer and an active participant in extra-curricular activities. However, in May, her mother started noticing that her posture was getting to be a bit weird.The shape of her spine was becoming S-shaped and the parents were worried. “We went to all possible doctors in the city but the only option they suggested was a surgery; they did not know the reason behind this,” her mother told BM.Due to the S-shaped spine, Rashmi started to have a tilted body structure because curvature of the vertebra. Dr Murali Mohan, HoD, Sagar Hospitals, diagnosed this case to be a case of thoraco-lumbar scoliosis.Doctors did a surgery of scoliosis correction and pedicle screws were placed. Mono screws were placed along convexity and poly screws were placed along concavity of the curvature with titanium rods.After the surgery, Rashmi’s vertebra was straightened and she is able to walk and run. “I feel like cycling now and I have asked the doctors if I can do it,” she told BM.Dr Mohan said that scoliosis is a congenital issue in the bone, muscle or a nerve. “Sometimes, post-trauma people can suffer from a condition like this. Rashmi had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. It is more often seen in girls in the 8-10 age bracket. There’s no specific reason why it occurred in Rashmi’s case that is why we call it an idiopathic condition,” added Dr Mohan.He said that it was the right age to conduct a surgery and correct it. “Before she could hit puberty, we needed to do it otherwise the vertebra will start getting crooked again.”Dr Mohan says that many patients are scared of getting a surgery to get the spine fixed. “People need to be told that it’s possible to treat such conditions and correct them. There were times in 80s and 90s when the results were not that great. Now we have such good technology like microscopic and magnification mechanisms that we are able to do these surgeries within no time.”Doctors these days use a high-speed drill to fix the structures of the bone. During these procedures, doctors need to monitor if the patient’s spine is working during these types of surgeries throughout the procedure. “We have something called intra-operative nuero monitoring wherein while operating it, the doctor keeps checking if the patient’s spine is working. Earlier, there were times when we had to wake the patient up every now and then to see if the spine was working. We have advanced so much that we just need to see the monitor and we come to know if all is well during the operation,” says Dr Mohan.