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Old 02-01-2011, 09:57 PM
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mmglobal mmglobal is offline
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Newhere... welcome to the forum.

Motion preservations technologies are usually not in play for the t-spine because there is so little motion there.

Typical endoscopic techniques are not in play because there is so much bony structure around the t-spine, it's hard to get in without removing so much bone that the stability is too severely impacted.

Dr. Jho in Pittsburgh does a 'keyhole' surgery where he accesses the canal area from the front of the spine by drilling through the vertebral body. I would not do this procedure with anyone else, or with anyone who's done hundreds and has been doing it for years. This will never be in the range of the average surgeon.

Dr. Regan does VATS surgery at this level... less invasive than traditional thoracic surgeries.

XLIF procedures are even less invasive.

Hopefully, you'll get away without surgery, but if you must be cut... do your homework... make informed decisions!

Mark
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1997 MVA
2000 L4-5 Microdiscectomy/laminotomy
2001 L5-S1 Micro-d/lami
2002 L4-S1 Charite' ADR - SUCCESS!
2009 C3-C4, C5-C6-C7, T1-T2 ProDisc-C Nova
Summer 2009, more bad thoracic discs!
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