CNS Blog
Klippel-Feil Syndrome. Congenital fusion. Cervical spinal cord & foraminal decompression in stages.
Klippel-Feil syndrome (KFS) is a condition that involves at-birth/congenital (autologous) fusion of some of the cervical vertebrae. That fusion causes acceleration of degenerative changes above and below the fused “block” of vertebrae, often leading to earlier cord compression. In this older man who I recently operated on with KFS, this was his severely degenerative cervical […]
Read MoreOrientation of your lower lumbar joints and the implication for back pain: Abnormal “coronal orientation” of facet joints and a “pars defect”
The lower lumbar facet joints (illustrated below) are usually oriented at around 45 degrees between the side-on midline plane (“sagittal”; side-on perspective) and the front-on midline plane (“coronal”; front-on perspective). These lubricated ‘synovial’ joints help guide movements and also stabilise the spine, and prevent it from becoming misaligned (listhesis; “slipped”). The lumbar facet joints (a […]
Read MoreNice range of motion following ‘hybrid’ (artificial disc + cage) anterior lumbar spinal reconstruction
This athletic man who also actively runs a large business enterprise had problems maintaining his quality of life from chronic progressive lumbar pain and sciatic symptoms. His two lowermost discs were quite degenerative as seen in the MRI image below (region of red dashed oval). We talked about his options and expectations. I put in […]
Read MoreA ‘thing of beauty’ – State-of-the-art anterior hybrid cervical reconstruction: Before vs. After – Artificial disc, cage prosthetics
Image 1 shows the state of this man’s neck on a lateral X-ray. Mid-60s, with over 40 years of axial neck pain. Pre-operatively, I felt his neck to be relatively “collapsed and kyphotic” especially at C4/5, C5/6 and C6/7. The normal lordosis (slight ‘backward bending’ or ‘anteriorly convex’ curvature) of the cervical spine is also […]
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