Clinical case

Clinical Case Removal of cervical arthrodesis due to mobile cervical implants

This case represents many of the cases that come to our consultations looking for solutions.

It is a case of cervical surgery of a middle-aged patient who underwent surgery approximately 6 years ago, in which operation they chose to fix a cervical segment.

Preoperative

What they did in the operation 6 years ago was to put a device between the vertebrae and a plate with 4 screws, 2 in each vertebra.

The patient improved for a couple of months, but immediately afterward she began to worsen, which led her to more traumatology and physical therapy consultations with no success in reducing the pain.

After studying the patient using CT and MRI, we came to the conclusion that the patient had pseudoarthrosis.

As the screws are not well fixed, what happens is that the screw loosens at the same time that it eats away at the inside of the vertebra.

These vertebrae, as well as the adjacent segments, begin to have degenerative changes and growth of osteocytes that begin to compress the neurological tissue.

Operation

After studying the case we have decided that the best option is to remove said plate and proceed to implant a mobile disc.

In operation, We remove the patient's previous implant, clean the disc and the back of the vertebrae very well., we open the canal until we expose almost completely decompressed neurological tissue.

As the adjacent segments were also damaged, we did the same in the upper and lower segment and opted for the placement of three levels of mobile prostheses, since they restore fairly correct mobility and allow natural mobility.

Postoperative

The surgery lasted approximately 2 hours and it was done without incident.

Currently the patient is in her room with good mobility of the cervical spine with analgesics and no discomfort.

If everything goes naturally, you will be able to go home tomorrow morning.

The patient does not require collars or immobilizations of any kind, but rather, on the contrary, they must perform natural movements and begin rehabilitation as soon as possible to adapt the muscles and ligaments to the correct situation and the normal positions of normal movement of the spine. .