A patient in Arizona has been successfully treated with a new type of lumbar spine disc repair. According to HonorHealth Research Institute in Scottsdale, it’s the first time the treatment has been used in the state and the second time in the U.S.
The treatment relieves chronic, severe lower back pain caused by degenerated discs. For years, doctors have either fused the vertebrae, which limits motion, or inserted a substitute artificial disc, which is a more extensive surgery.
Dr. Luis Tumialan, specializes in spine and neurosurgery as part of the HonorHealth Research Institute’s Neuroscience Research Division. He said the discs in human spines contain a jelly, wrapped in a tough collagen packaging that acts like a shock absorber.
“And when that tough collagen tears and the jelly gets out, it can begin a degenerative cascade,” Tumialan said. “It makes all the sense in the world to just put jelly back in.”
The new PerQdisc allows physicians to do just that.
“We create room for it by taking out the jelly that's no longer functional, no longer doing its job, and then we replace it,” Tumialan said. “We put a balloon in there and then we inflate, we fill that balloon with this silicone, which takes the shape of a large flattened Lima bean.”
That creates a new shock absorber, provides immediate pain relief and maintains the patient’s full range of motion. It allows the patient to go home and resume normal activities the same day.
“The patient that I took care of told me she was able to go back to yoga, go back to stretching, go back to hiking. She went skiing in Japan.
These are things that were unthinkable [before] and she did all these very soon after surgery,” Tumialan said.
For now, the procedure is limited to the space between the L2 and L3 vertebrae, between the L3 and L4 vertebrae, and between the L4 and L5 vertebrae; all three are in the lower lumbar region, which is the most common part of the spine for such deterioration to occur.
The procedure is intended for those in their middle years, those 25 to 50 years old. Those younger than 25 generally don’t experience much deterioration, and those older than 50 may experience so much deterioration that this procedure is no longer available to them.
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