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in reply to: Disagreement on Degree of Surgery Needed #5002
Glad to hear you are better from the surgery. Please let us know here when you are back to full activities and how you did from the surgery. I answered the “numbness” question on your other thread. You can review that answer on the forum.
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.in reply to: Forearm Numbness after ACDF #5001The symptoms you discuss after the C6-7 ACDF surgery could be from two separate sources. First is the decompression of the nerve. When a nerve is compressed, pain is the predominant symptom noticed. There is most likely numbness also present but that numbness is not noted as it is overshadowed by pain. When the nerve pain is reduced after surgical decompression, the numbness is finally recognized. Numbness takes months to resolve and resolves very slowly.
You are correct that forearm numbness that radiates into the little finger is typically the distribution of the C8 nerve and the nerve that was operated on was the C7 nerve. There are two possibilities with pinky finger involvement. The first, which is rare is that you are wired differently than most people and C8 covers the inside of the hand. However, the most likely problem is that you have ulnar neuropathy.
The ulnar nerve sits in the cubital tunnel at the elbow (the “funny bone”). This nerve becomes stretched when you bend your elbow and will radiate numbness into the small finger and inside of the hand. Since this condition can be bilateral, you notice some of the numbness on the right hand.
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.in reply to: Cervical & Lumbar Radiculopathy #5000The arm weakness could be from the cord compression or the nerve compression, A thorough physical examination can help differentiate between these two diagnoses.
PT is designed to increase function and reduce pain. PT will not “cure” the disorder but can make day to day activities easier to complete.
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.in reply to: Cervical Facet Syndrome? #4999Sub-occipital headaches can originate from the C2-3 and C3-4 facets. Physical therapy and chiropractic manipulation can be helpful to control these headaches. With such a short period of time you have had these, especially without trauma, most likely they will go away. Treatment can hasten their disappearance.
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.You report that you injured your back in July- some 3-4 months ago. You have pain in your back that radiates into your left leg and report degenerative disc disease in the L5-S1 level. You have tried chiropractic care but the symptoms did not improve. The MRI did not note nerve compression so a discogram was completed. The levels L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1 were tested. L3-4 and L4-5 did not cause pain but L5-S1 was extremely painful and apparently reproduced your typical pain but at increased intensity. The test prompted your surgeon to recommend a fusion of L5-S1. Do I have it correct so far?
Some questions. Do you have more pain in the left buttocks and leg than you do in the back? If so, is the pain worse with standing and walking or with sitting and bending? Do you have more back pain than buttocks and leg pain? What happened with the spidural steroid injections? Did you keep a pain diary (see website for this)?
If you have more leg pain than back pain and the pain is increased with standing, you may have lateral recess stenosis or foraminal stenosis. There are various surgical treatments for these diagnoses and fusion could be one of them. It all depends upon the pain generator involved.
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.in reply to: QUESTIONS PRE-OP AND POST-OP FUSION SURGERY #4989Please review the website. It is full of answers for your questions and is much more thorough than I can be here on the forum.
A TLIF reconstructs the disc height for fusion purposes which restores the foraminal height- necessary for decompression of the nerve root.
TLIF fusion rate in my hands is 98%. That is not satisfaction rate however. I tell my patients that there is a 90% satisfaction rate for 2/3 relief of pain. The others at least at this point are no worse and most are somewhat better but 10% of patients do not reach the 90% satisfaction rate. The reason is that some patients have chronic radiculopathy from the original pathology (see website) and 2% do not get a solid fusion.
There is always the chance that surgery can make your symptoms worse, but in good hands, that chance is small.
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. -
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