c2 and c3 please

Viewing 6 posts - 43 through 48 (of 87 total)

Previous 1 2 3 … 7 8 9 … 13 14 15 Next

Author

Posts
Donald Corenman, MD, DC
Moderator

August 14, 2013 at 4:11 am

Post count: 8660

#9207

It is always a good idea to have a second opinion if you have reservations about this neurosurgeon. Typically, surgical plans should not typically include “what I find when I get in there”. Spinal surgery is not like exploring Antarctica where you don’t know what is behind the next bend. Everything you need to know should be found by the physical examination, the imaging and any tests (EMG, motion X-rays, etc..). Any deviation from the original plan should have a reason.

Dr. Corenman

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.

carolns
Participant

August 14, 2013 at 11:25 pm

Post count: 88

#9218

My Doctor agreed and when they get the report from Hfx (probabl0 middle of Sept we are going to get another opinion. thank you tons.
Got a copy of my flex/ext. I will post it and would appreciate what you think of it please.
Have to print it out as I don’t know how to get it here.

Cervical spine dated 08/08/13
Clinical data: Three-month follow up cervical stenosis
Findings: Lateral views of the cervical spine were obtained in flexion and extension. There is a grade 1 anterolisthesis of c2 on c3 which increases to grade 2 anterolisthesis in flexion. There is otherwise normal alignment of the cervical spine however there is significant intervertebral disc height loss throughout the cervical spine from c3/4 through 5/6. The c6/7 interspace is not evaluated there is significant anterior and posterior osteophytic spurring at the c4/5 and c5/6 levels well as posterior osteophytic spurring. There is facet hypertrophy. There is no evidence for fracture. There is anterior wedging of the c5 vertebral which is considered chronic.
final report

thank you so much Carol

Donald Corenman, MD, DC
Moderator

August 15, 2013 at 9:12 am

Post count: 8660

#9230

Spondylolistheses are graded 1-5. Each grade is equivalent to 25% of the width of the whole vertebra. A change of grade 1 to grade 2 with motion is substantial and most likely needs to be addressed by a fusion.

Dr. Corenman

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.

carolns
Participant

August 16, 2013 at 6:14 pm

Post count: 88

#9233

Thank you so much for all the help you have given me. I have learnt so much and feel I now have the confidence to speak up. I will be going to my family doctor when she gets the reports back in Sept and will for sure get a second opinion. I will let you know how I make out.
Would it be okay ask for a NS who does ACDF for a second opinion or
just leave that up to the NS? Be Well Carol

Donald Corenman, MD, DC
Moderator

August 18, 2013 at 8:26 pm

Post count: 8660

#9241

I would assume that all NS can do an ACDF as this should be their “bread and butter” procedure.

Please keep us informed.

Dr. Corenman

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.

carolns
Participant

September 10, 2013 at 9:17 pm

Post count: 88

#9354

This is the second time I try to post .I had a word the doctor used and the post was rejected.

Got the Plan from my last visit to NS and he said my exam was unremarkable, we do not think there will be a need for a decompression at this time.( what does this mean?)She is interest in receiving the surgery and understands this might not necessary reverse her neck pain but however will hopefully prevent the progression of her disease.

We explained the procedure to her (doesn’t know what he will do till he gets in there) as well as the risks which include death. paralysis loss of bowel, bladder,injury to nerves, making the spine more unstable as well as blood clots.
She was okay with these risks and signed the contact.

Her main issues were her limitation following the surgery. She will have to be in a brace 4 to 6 weeks. Ideality if there are no complications she will return to driving after 6 weeks. She can gradually progress to her regular activities with the help of a physiotherapy.

My family doctor thinks he is great.
My 1st first visit with ns he said I would go paralyzed without surgery.
My second visit said he doesn’t know if I should have surgery or not.
Also he won’t know what he has to do till he gets in there.
Also asked him about ACDF and he said oh you don’t want me to do that on you and he and the intern started laughing and said something about the throat..

I cancelled surgery. I had a difficult time but my doctor is getting me a SECOND opinion.Will probably take a long time. Thank you so very much.Carolns

Dr. Corenman post=4972 wrote: I would assume that all NS can do an ACDF as this should be their “bread and butter” procedure.

Please keep us informed.

Dr. Corenman
Author

Posts

Viewing 6 posts - 43 through 48 (of 87 total)

Previous 1 2 3 … 7 8 9 … 13 14 15 Next

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Average rating:

81 reviews

Eric S

Sep 26, 2021

by Eric S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Successful pars repair at 46 years old

Back in November of 2018 (at 46 years old) I came from Vancouver BC to have a pars repair done with Dr. Donald Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. I'm finally posting this review nearly three years later in late 2021. The reason I waited so long was I wanted to know the final result before I posted my review. Unfortunately in that time Dr. Corenman has retired. Nevertheless, I want to post this review of Dr. Corenman and his staff at the Steadman Clinic in their excellent treatment of my L5 pars interarticularis.

I fractured my pars at age 42 back in 2014 when rolling on the gym floor, and was denied treatment by the Canadian healthcare system, probably due to my age. First my GP told me there was no surgical option for a pars defect, which was quite incorrect! I tried to live with it, but the symptoms worsened (periodic random spine slippage and weeks of resultant pain after just bending over to tie my shoe, so I eventually learned to mostly squat and hardly bend). When I finally consulted with Canadian spine surgeons, I was told they believed my pars defect had been congenital (since birth). This was absurd, considering I had done extreme martial arts (including jiu jitsu) for years prior, as well as 5 years of reinforcing steel full time in my 20s, probably the hardest job on the back you can find. No pars defect like mine would possibly have allowed this--ergo it was impossible that I had had the defect since birth. I did however have an asymptomatic congenital spina bifida occulta that made me more susceptible to a pars fracture. In 2014 in one instant, I went from having the strongest back people I knew said they'd ever seen, to being unable to safely bend over and tie my shoe without a non-negligible risk of my spine slipping randomly (which would lead to weeks of pain after each occurrence). This was due to the unilateral L5 pars defect, otherwise known as spondylolysis. It was when lying in pain on the floor 4 years later after maybe the 6th spine slippage event post injury, that I had had enough, and resolved to have surgery. If Canada's "universal health care" said no, I would make lemonade from lemons, and find the very best surgeon in the world at pars repairs. That was Dr. Donald Corenman. Dr. Corenman back in 2018 ran a website https://neckandback.com/ that dedicated many pages to the science of every aspect of pars repairs, from eligibility (good discs on MRI), to best surgical techniques (minimal open compared to minimally invasive), best imaging to use (i.e., O-Arm with Stealth imaging vs. older fluoroscopy), the ideal amount of BMP to use and why not use too much or too little, and much more, all to do with pars repairs, pages upon pages of his site just on the pars, with scientific references and his own extensive expert opinion. As a health research statistician, I was very impressed with this. It was in stark contrast to the websites of other spine surgeons which barely gave the pars a word or two, focusing almost exclusively on fusions. I had found the best surgeon in the world for pars repairs, and so after Dr. Corenman personally screened my MRI to ensure my discs were healthy, I booked the surgery.

Being 46 years old at the time of surgery in 2018, with a 4-year-old pars fracture from 2014 combined with a congenital SBO meant my pars fragment was somewhat atrophied, but it was "very solid", said Dr. Corenman in the operative report. Nevertheless, it was challenging with two things to fix, the pars and SBO, and OR time was around 4 hours. Recovery over the following months was guided by a very clear "Spine binder" from the Steadman Clinic with strict rules of "no BLT" (no bending, lifting or twisting), and illustrated physiotherapy guidelines. They even warned patients to avoid fish oil supplements, which could excessively dampen inflammation and hence slow bone healing. They answered many questions I had during months of recovery, with responses coming from the very supportive Lori Fugate (then director of Dr. Corenman's practice), and Ehrich Bean (then physician's assistant at the practice), as well as a couple calls with Dr. Corenman himself after two of the CT scans. Ehrich Bean offered great advice for taking the spine binder conservatively due to the nature of pars repairs vs. fusions. The final post-op CT scan I had was a couple weeks ago at 34 months post-op, and Dr. Corenman had retired, but I got a very positive and informative call from Eric Strauch (current PA at the Steadman Clinic under Dr. Corenman's replacement there, and who had also worked with Dr. Corenman previously). The staff at the Steadman Clinic were extremely supportive all the way through the process. I should mention, the local Canadian spine surgeon did offer me very good post-operative support including antibiotics as needed to deal with a mild surface incision-site infection early on, booking numerous x-rays when I felt something was amiss, as well as booking all four of my post-op CT scans. I am very grateful for that support also.

My final result shows plenty of solid bone across the pars and a healed SBO, with my vertebral body now a solid bone ring instead of being broken at two places as it was pre-op. Does my spine hold up in the real world? You bet! I have recently dug and moved several yards of dirt and sand and gravel by myself (shovel and wheelbarrow!) to fix our water main, pulled roots from the yard, moved several "portable" (these are HUGE) air conditioners up several flights of stairs my myself, and lifted weights. I now run 2 miles (3.2 KM) several times weekly with a hard 100 meter dash in the middle. I bend deeply before each run I go on, with no spine slippage. My spine feels amazing. I can bend over to do exercise, or real word tasks, with no risk of spine slippage.

My sincere thanks to God, Dr. Donald Corenman, Lori Fugate, Ehrich Bean, Eric Strauch, and the Steadman Clinic, as well as the Canadian spine surgeon who offered me excellent post-operative care back in Canada. You have all given me a new lease on life.

Sincerely,
Eric S

Robert S

May 11, 2021

by Robert S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Back Fusion Surgery

I had my entire lumbar spine fused in November of 2018. I had scoliosis , with pinched nerves that were so painful I could hardly walk - and standing for more than a few minutes was impossible. Even sitting was painful.
The fusion surgery produced immediate relief! And the recovery was much easier than I expected.
To this day I can do all the activities I love from hiking, to standing in a stream fly fishing to riding my bike long distances - or just walking down the street with my wife.
Kudos to Dr. Corenman and his staff, (including the two Erics) for taking such good care of me!

Leslie R

Jul 9, 2020

by Leslie R on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

TLIF

I had my TLIF surgery on 6/24/2020 by Dr. Corenman, I can not say enough good things about the Dr or his staff. I was always treated with respect and explained everything throughly, that made it easy for everyone to understand. I highly recommend Dr. Corenman and the Steadman Clinic.

Submit your review
First Name, Last Initial:
Email:
Review Title:
Rating:	1 2 3 4 5
Review:

Check this box to confirm you are human.
Submit Cancel