[Donald Corenman, MD, DC]

#22098

Was the surgery an anterior approach (through the chest) or a posterior approach (an incision through the back of the spine)? The chest pain could be due to continuing compression of the nerve root, a damaged nerve root or rarely from the cord damage.

The right hand pain is not from the thoracic spine unless the T1-2 level was involved (which I assume it was not).

The edema and myelomalacia worries me. It is a possibility that the surgery somehow increased the cord injury and this is the cause of your increased symptoms. Unfortunately, worsening edema generally means further injury and cord injury tends not to resolve except for passage of time.

The increased “heat” in your leg could be from injury to the sympathetic nerves, which make the “normal side” feel hot while the injured nerve side is actually colder.

I’m not sure what “There was a cut in the wrong place, but no operation done” means. The problem with this depends upon whether the approach was from the front or the back.

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.

[JBoz]

#22099

Hello Dr. Corenman,
The surgery was a posterior surgery. When I say another incision, they made an incision at the lower thoracic spine. This was closed up and they continued at the right location higher up. A marker was placed in location a week before surgery, but was mistaken for a temperature probe, based on the surgical report. This was a laminectomy with microdiscectomy. I had severe chest pain after surgery, this was worsened, I have remained strong, but this recent MRI is disturbing. Is there a game plan for edema, and or mylomalacia? If it is fluid buildup, can be fixed, because my quality of life is not good. Is there a fix for this moderate to severe condition?

Thank you Dr. Corenman,

[Donald Corenman, MD, DC]

#22107

There might be some retraction injury to the cord from the surgery. Unfortunately, cord injury does not respond to treatment unless the injury is treated immediately with a steroid or some experimental medications. Time is the only treatment that can have beneficial effects. That is assuming that the cord has been fully decompressed. If there is continued compression, further surgery might be beneficial but that is questionable.

I am surprised that the surgeon would not use real-time x-rays dos determine the location of the surgery but depend upon a marker that was placed days before the surgery.

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.

[JBoz]

#22109

Dr. Corenman, thank you for your response.

I guess the only question now is, will this condition continue to get worse?

Thank you so much. This is very difficult to deal with, and I appreciate your knowledge. I had the chest pain before, this was the single reason for surgery, but it is unchanged, and growing stronger. The back pain is new, and this has become another issue, along with the right leg feeling hot, and the hip, all which has been looked into, with no discovery.

JBoz

[Donald Corenman, MD, DC]

#22117

The condition tends not to get worse but stays the same and possibly gets better over time. Do you have continued compression or is the spinal canal clear?

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.

[JBoz]

#22121

Dr. Corenman,

The cord is not clear where the edema is, it takes up more space than the protrusion before surgery. The moderate to severe edema, and or myelomalacia appears to have taken the place of the disc protrusion, which was resolved.

Right after surgery my symptoms were far worse than the intermittent chest pain before surgery. It became constant, and eventually over two months seemed to go back to what it was before surgery, which was still very serious, something I have been dealing with for 3.8 years now.

The symptoms in the last month have increased back to a more constant chest and back pain. This was my reason for asking for the MRI. I don’t know what to think of this edema or myelomalacia. I fear things are progressing. If this is the case, what could be happening? This pain is very serious in nature. I cannot put in words how low my quality of life is from this pain. I’m a single dad that is unable to function as a result of this chest pain, the neck pain I still have from two surgeries on the neck. Now add the new back and leg issues, it makes it even tougher than before this surgery. I guess I’m concerned about what my body is telling me.

I wish I could say it is the same, or has been getting better, but the above finding was worse than an ER MRI done a month after surgery of my thoracic spine, which spoke of severe flattening of the cord due to fluid buildup. I was told this would decrease with time, that it is a normal part of this surgery.

I can tell you that this is a very difficult way to live every day. I’m seriously worried about the situation in short. I don’t know what to do now. Still waiting for my surgeon to get back with me.

You mentioned that the edema, and or myelomalacia worried you before. I know the second one is the worst from reading. What if this is progressing in my case?

Thank you Dr. Corenman, who would have thought this thread would go on this long.

I’m truly grateful.

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