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What helps spinal stenosis besides surgery?

Spine Health | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (193)

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@jenniferhunter

@rita9876 I'm glad your neurosurgeon drew diagrams for you so you can visualize what he proposes. With any hardware that is screwed into the spine, bone quality to hold it in place is very important. Every screw exerts some pressure in a particular direction and there is a risk that screws can loosen, pull out or break. Pedicle screws need precise placement to minimize that risk. I'm not saying that to scare you, but I've watched video presentations by surgeons at conferences taking about this and explaining revision surgeries. With an osteotomy, the bone fusion there has strength. It is worth asking if the osteotomy fusion strength is a better choice, essentially is the fused bone stronger than bone in general? Is that something that should be considered for deformity correction with osteoporosis?

When do you finish your Evenity treatment and then are able to schedule surgery? What would you need to do going forward after deformity surgery to maintain good bone quality and preserve the surgical correction?

You may also want to look at this post earlier in this discussion for a list of questions to ask a spine surgeon. Those came from a list I compiled of possible questions before my surgery.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/775287/

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Replies to "@rita9876 I'm glad your neurosurgeon drew diagrams for you so you can visualize what he proposes...."

@jenniferhunter
I was told by the ortho surgeon's office that the best time for surgery with Evenity treatment is between 6-9 months after the treatment starts (I will have my 9th treatment next week). The full treatment is considered as 12 monthly doses. After the treatment, I am suppose to be on medicine such as Prolia to maintain for the rest of my life.

Although I believe the ortho surgeon would do a good job fixing my issues. I really like him and his staffs as I have much more contacts with them since Aug. of 2021. He was very detail oriented. He was instrumental for me getting the bone treatment (I was denied treatment several times by my insurance due to the cost of the medicine...) I am very thankful towards him. But currently, I am leaning towards the neurosurgeon, mainly because it is a smidgen conservative. The neurosurgeon did say his approach is similar and is also just as complicated. But I need to take every minute saving.
Thank you @jenniferhunter.