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Posted: 9:06 AM Aug 31, 2010
New Surgery for Patients Experiencing Lower Back Pain
Eighty percent of Americans will suffer lower back pain at some point in their lives.
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A cancer doctor checks out a patient at St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, NE.
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Eighty percent of Americans will suffer lower back pain at some point in their lives.
For many patients with aching in their lower backs, the problem may actually be in their sacroiliac joint; the joint that connects the back and hip.
Now, a minimally-invasive surgery could help these patients find relief.
When 66-year-old John Baxter says yard work used to be a pain in the butt, he's not kidding. "From both buttocks down both of my legs to my knees were totally fatigued when you walk. I had constant pain across my lower back and extreme pain, at times, depending on what you were doing."
Heavy lifting at work three years ago injured his sacroiliac joint or SIJ.
Spine Surgeon Doctor Arnold Graham Smith says for patients with persistent pain, even surgical options are rare.
"Very few people are doing the major operation to open the joint up and pack it with bone chips. I'm one of those people who has done that, but for the great majority of people, there's been no treatment available at all," Dr. Graham Smith said.
Doctor Graham Smith uses porous triangular rods in a new procedure to fix the joint; a process called arthrodesis. Guided by live imaging, he cuts three slots across the sacroiliac joint then places the rods through the joint to stabilize it.
"The procedure works because it stops the joint from moving, and its only movement, which brings on the pain," Dr. Graham Smith explains.
Three months after surgery, there is relief for Baxter. "My back pain is gone, and the numbness down both legs is gone."
Baxter has finally put his pain behind him and has a lot of work ahead of him.
This new surgery has been approved by the FDA.
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