Revision spine surgery on a patient who had undergone a fusion by a surgeon elsewhere. Her fusion failed and, as a result, her screws broke at S1. When hardware breaks, it is often an indication that the fusion did not heal. Constant stress across metal implants, when a fusion fails to heal, leads to breakage.
For revision spine surgery to correct the problem, the patient’s cage which was made out of medical-grade plastic was removed. Dr. Cyr is a strong believer in only using bone and not plastic or metal to fuse the spine. The cage was replaced with a ring of bone which you can see in the x-rays is significantly larger than the plastic cage. Not only does it provide better structural support but it also can heal into the patient’s native bone resulting in a more successful fusion.
This is followed by the removal of the broken screws and revision of the screws upsizing and revising the placement as one of the screws also violated the spinal canal and was pinching the L5 nerve on the left. This was followed by bone graft placement along the sides of the spine to increase the chance of a solid fusion. #SASpine
