CT-guided intervention for cervical disc herniation is safer
□ Our reporter Zhan Haiyan Correspondent Cui Weifeng
Recently, Ms. Yang had CT-guided interventional treatment for cervical disc herniation at the District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. After the surgery, the neck and shoulder discomfort and paroxysmal left upper limb numbness that had been present for more than a year disappeared. According to her, she was afraid to undergo surgery because she felt that surgery was dangerous and CT-guided cervical disc herniation intervention was less risky, and she was lucky to be treated in time, otherwise she would still be in pain, unable to move her hands, unable to work, and unable to sleep. Xu Guozeng, Department of Interventional Medicine, Guangzhou Panyu District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Before the interventional treatment, Xu Guozeng, the director of the CT department of the District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, introduced her to the interventional treatment method through the CT scan of the cervical spine structure. The clear visualization of the procedure and the full consideration of safety and security in designing each step made Ms. Yang put aside her worries and feel confident about her recovery.
Cervical disc herniation is mostly seen in young and middle-aged people
According to Director Xu Guozeng, cervical disc herniation is one of the more common spinal diseases with a high incidence, and cervical disc herniation is mostly seen in young adults between the ages of 20 and 40.
Generally speaking, cervical disc herniation is more common in men than women, and people who maintain a fixed posture for a long time, such as office workers, computer operators, accountants, typists, teachers, drivers, bank employees, operating room nurses, traffic police, embroidery workers, long-term microscope viewers, painters, electricians, lettering workers, car or machine repairers, etc. are also the most common group of people with this disease. The aforementioned Ms. Yang is 41 years old and her years of experience as a female shop worker is the main reason for her worsening cervical disc herniation.
Herniation can be life-threatening in severe cases
It is understood that the formation of cervical disc herniation is mainly due to cervical ligament laxity, vertebral instability, cervical soft tissue strain and other factors leading to cervical disc degeneration, compression, fibrous ring rupture or nucleus pulposus prolapse, stimulation or compression of the cervical vertebral artery, cervical sympathetic nerve, spinal nerve, spinal cord, etc. and produced.
With the different functions of the compressed nerves, patients are prone to headache, vertigo, palpitations, chest tightness, neck pain, restricted movement, shoulder and back pain, upper limb numbness and swelling, gait instability, limb weakness and other symptoms and signs, and in severe cases, even life-threatening paraplegia.
Director Xu Guozeng said, according to the CT scan, Ms. Yang’s C5/6 disc protruded, which happened to compress the C6 nerve, causing symptoms such as pain and paralysis in the corresponding area.
Relatively high risk of cervical disc surgery
Due to the complex structure of the neck, it is the “must pass” place for the main blood vessels and nerve centers of the body. For this reason, surgery on the neck is often referred to by doctors as “fighting a mouse in front of a vase”, which increases the likelihood of damage to blood vessels, spinal cord and nerves.
In the past, the treatment of severe cervical disc herniation mainly relied on “open surgery”, but with the continuous development of medical equipment and medical technology, minimally invasive interventional treatment of cervical disc herniation is a method that has been carried out more often in recent years. In the treatment of cervical disc herniation, it has good efficacy, but there is also a certain degree of risk, the use of CT guidance can better solve the risk, patients suffering from cervical disc herniation need not worry too much.
CT guidance accurately avoids dangerous minefields
In order to minimize the risk of interventional treatment for cervical disc herniation, Director Xu Guozeng combined his professional advantages and used CT guidance to determine the surgical path and scale in detail, and repeatedly checked the accuracy of the path through CT scans during the operation, skillfully avoiding the “minefield” constituted by major blood vessels, nerves and other important tissues “The safety of the surgery is greatly increased by repeatedly checking the accuracy of the path through CT scans.
Ms. Yang is one of the successful cases of this type of surgery. The reporter saw that Ms. Yang was fine 3 days after the surgery, and only a hole-like scar was still visible on her neck, which the doctor said would come off in a few days after the scar was completely dry, and basically no trace of the surgery could be seen. Ms. Yang, who was sitting at the bedside, was in good spirits and said that her arm, which was immobile, could now be used for eating and writing. Most importantly, she finally slept a few days in the past two days, which she had not enjoyed for more than a year.
Ms. Yang also said that her left arm, which was originally paralyzed and weak, can now carry heavy objects such as bath water, but the doctor stressed that it is not advisable to put too much force on the arm before complete recovery, and that the future recovery process still needs to follow the doctor’s instructions to carry out appropriate exercises for better recovery results.