Some of you may remember Maggie, who I performed a Shilla Growing rod procedure on last May. Maggie has done great postop, but over the last few months has developed some progressive kyphosis at the top of her thoracic spine. This is largely in part to her severe osteoporosis, which was allowing her spine to sag forward into kyphosis. This caused the Shilla hardware to become more prominent under the muscle and skin to the point where I was concerned it may cause skin breakdown. Sunday Maggie’s mom sent me some new clinical photos of Maggie’s back, which made it clear that I needed to do something now before her hardware got exposed and infected. So,
Sunday night I went into planning and action mode to get this done. Booked the surgery at WakeMed. Contacted my patient that was supposed to have surgery with me Monday afternoon and asked her to move to different date…. booked the special equipment I needed from the vendors, and planned out the surgery.
Fortunately I have been working on a new technique, called the “U-Rod” over this past year to help revise patients with severe kyphoscoliosis who have less than optimal bone quality. The U-Rod uses sublaminar fixation with FiberWire, which is extremely strong, but gentle on the spine. This U-Rod technique is really an evolution of the old Luque Box technique that was used with stainless steel sublaminar wire. I’ve come up with a fairly unique way of fastening the Fiber
Wire around the lamina and the rod which allows it to hold snugly, but really spread out the load. This Luque Box technique is what I used on the lady highlighted on my blog a couple sessions back who
I straightened up 15 years ago, and is still doing well.
Maggie was an absolute super star trooper Sunday and Monday getting ready for surgery. She won the hearts again of the Hey Clinic staff and the WakeMed Children’s Hospital! Calm, cool and collected — ready to get straightened up!
Her surgery yesterday afternoon took about 4.5 hours overall, and I was able to get a really good correction using the U-Rod. Maggie is recovering well in the hospital, and should be home soon.
Many thanks for the Hey Clinic staff and WakeMed Children’s Hospital staff who pulled together to make this work out well for Maggie and her family! Many thanks also for the many friends and family who kept Maggie and her family and I, and our whole team in prayer. Many answered prayers here!
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
https://www.heyclinic.com
