A new life: it began for Linda (invented name) four months ago, in November last year, when she left the operating room of the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna at the end of the operation performed by the team of Vertebral Surgery directed by Dr Alessandro Gasbarrini.
Seven hours to restore her back severely affected by a combined form of scoliosis and kyphosis (idiopathic kyphoscoliosis) to its natural position, increasing the girl’s height by 15 centimeters and eliminating the causes of years of pain and progressive limitations of movement and risks increasingly high levels of vital organ impairment.
“The operation was complex and delicate – explains Gasbarrini – because the curvature came to bend the spine by 90 degrees: imagine the column which is normally straight and instead deviates mid-back forming a right angle. Added to this was a further deflection of the forward bent bone in the ribcage.”
During the surgery, a thoracic vertebrae was removed and screws and metal rods were inserted into nearby vertebrae to keep them in the correct position. The removed vertebra was replaced with a titanium vertebral prosthesis.
“The risk of paralysis was very high due to the deviation in the upper part of the column, where the marrow has little space, and the important scars also in contact with the marrow itself left by previous operations the patient had undergone before arriving at the Rizzoli – goes on Gasbarrini. – For this reason, together with that of the vertebral surgeons, the work of the team of anesthetists, physiopathology technicians and operating room nurses was essential: without their skills, operations like this would not be possible. And when I received the ‘before and now’ selfie we shared a moment of particular intensity.”
Upon arrival in the ward, after five days in intensive care after surgery, Linda was able to stand up: the rehabilitation process immediately began, and then continued at home. Today she only has two sessions a week, because Linda has recovered her complete functionality as her body has become accustomed to the new anatomy of her back, while before being operated on she too was struggling to wash her hair by herself.
“To undergo an operation like this in the United States of America costs more than a million dollars – specifies the general manager of Rizzoli Anselm Campagna. – It may seem incredible but we have seen the estimates made to our patients who, before arriving at Rizzoli, a public research hospital, turned to North American centres. The raison d’être of our Institute is precisely this: to guarantee anyone in need the excellence of care, achieved through research and specialization, which is able to respond to situations of the utmost criticality.”