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Chronic pain and spinal fusion
Spine Health | Last Active: Apr 4, 2023 | Replies (173)Comment receiving replies
Hello @suzfuse46 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You have certainly been through a lot and can understandably see why are you are hesitant without exploring all your options.
I am going to bring in @jenniferhunter who may be able to lend her experiences your way.
Can you share what state you are in so that members can provide recommendations based on geography?
Replies to "Hello @suzfuse46 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You have certainly been through a lot and..."
@suzfuse46 Thanks, Amanda for bringing me into this conversation. Sue, you have an extensive history of spine surgeries and with your neurosurgeon not acknowledging your condition, I think you are right in seeking another opinion. I did some searching of medical literature on Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) for spine surgery, and then in looking up the authors, I found medical centers that use this method for video assisted surgeries. I found a paper authored by Mayo surgeons for VATS scoliosis pediatric surgery and the Mayo website does indicate VATS can be done for spine surgeries. I found VATS spine literature authored by surgeons at UC Davis, and Cedars-Siani in California.
https://thejns.org/focus/view/journals/neurosurg-focus/36/3/article-pE8.xml
I had also responded to your personal message. I can inquire with the Mayo surgeon who did my cervical surgery to ask about surgeons there who might be using this VATS for adult thoracic spine surgeries.
You need a high level spine deformity expert who takes complex cases. I found a new video with a presentation by Dr. Patrick Johnson from Cedars- Siani in Los Angeles that discusses video assisted thoracic spine surgeries and it shows surgery photos and videos, so be prepared to see those if you watch this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z44zfcIp_xw
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I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan