Woman with slipped disc successfully operated on

PUNE: A 38-year-old woman was treated for cervical slipped disc through a new technique called ‘Cervical Biportal Endoscopy’ at the Saishree hospital in Aundh.

The woman had suddenly started feeling pain in her neck going through her left hand with burning sensations and loss of grip. She approached Saishree hospital and was in need of urgent medical attention.

Painkillers and Root Block injection did not help much. 

Root Block injection involves temporarily blocking the root at the site of its origin, this usually gives good pain relief and allows the body to heal, without any surgical intervention.

Dr Ketan Deshpande, renowned Endoscopic Spine Surgeon at Saishree Hospital, Aundh, said that the patient came to them in 2018 and was diagnosed with slipped disc in the lower spine and was successfully operated on. Recently, she again started suffering from a sudden pain in the neck and left hand. The patient was diagnosed with a cervical slipped disc.

“Anterior Cervical discectomy and fusion is a routine surgery done for this type of patient but it involves removal of the disc via an anterior approach and replacing it with artificial cage and plate. But considering this patient’s age and the type of disc herniation, we decided to do something novel, applying biportal endoscopic approach in cervical spine, possibly the first of its kind cervical biportal endoscopy,” said Dr Deshpande.

Dr Deshpande shared that the nerves in the neck region are very delicate and manipulating during surgery is not permissible.

This is where endoscopy comes into play, since this procedure is done under complete endoscopic visualisation, the magnified view under camera provides crisp, clear images and clear identification of neural elements. Also, this approach involves approaching the spinal nerves from back of the neck which avoids manipulating critical front sided structures like the food pipe, windpipe and also major blood vessels. This reduces the approach-related complications,” said Dr Deshpande.

He said that this is a completely stitch-less surgery. 

Cervical Biportal Endoscopy consists of two small incisions, a 4 mm incision that carries the endoscope and 1 cm incision that allows passage of instruments needed to perform the decompression procedure. The whole procedure was completed in 75 minutes and the patient was mobilised on the very next day and discharged on the third day,” said Dr Deshpande.

At the time of the surgery, Dr Ketan Deshpande, Spine Surgeon, Dr Trupti Pare, Anaesthesiologist, at SaiShree Hospital were present.