Doctor moves pain-free after modern spine surgery

BOKARO: The Bokaro General Hospital (BGH) has achieved the milestone of becoming one of the few hospitals in the country to have successfully performed the most modern vertebral body stenting (stentoplasty) on a 51-year-old patient who suffered a spine fracture. The patient was also a doctor at BGH.
“Stentoplasty represents the next step in the evolution of cement spinal augmentation where a stent is placed within the vertebral body followed by an infusion of cement. It is an effective treatment for acute painful vertebral fractures showing progressive collapse,” said Dr Anand Kumar, neurosurgeon who headed the surgery with his team.
Dr Aninda Mandal was admitted with severe back pain due to a compression fracture of D12 vertebrae after a fall. Mandal said, “My surgery was done on Febuary 1. I was released after two days but was kept under observation for 50 days. Now I am as good as normal. The surgery took about 3 hours.”
Dr Anand said, “It is a minimally invasive procedure. Patients can sit on the day of surgery. Implant provider Johnson and Johnson claimed that this was the third such surgery performed in the country, specially in eastern India, since stentoplasty was introduced.”
In stentoplasty, an expandable cage made of titanium is inserted into the collapsed vertebra. The cage is expanded inside lifting the collapsed bone and restoring the height. Stents are left inside. Finally, the vertebral body and the stents are filled with bone cement.