SURGİCAL COMPLİCATİON

Sometimes complications can be encountered in surgical procedures. In the literature, certain risks and complication rates are reported for each procedure.

I always tell my patients. A surgeon should put the risks and benefits in two pans of the scales, and then should recommend the heavier one to the patient. However, the presence of the surgical risk should be shared with the patient and his/her family, in any event.

In a patient's x-ray film that I saw in 2014, I noticed that the surgeon performed a discectomy during the surgery, and placed an implant between the vertebrae; however, after 1 month the implant in the space protruded and applied pressure on the spinal cord nerve, in such a way as to impede the patient’s ability to walk. We removed the implant from there, put the new one, and ensured the permanent fixation of the implant by applying 4 screws to the vertebrae at 2 levels.

For the last 1 year, we perform the facet screwing technique with percutaneous (closed) procedures, instead of placing platinum in such patients. We can achieve this with only two 1.5 cm incisions made in the lumbar region of patients. You can also access more detailed explanations on this subject, under the title of Percutaneous Facet Screw Fixation in the blog.