Medical Breakthroughs: New procedure helping to treat herniated disks
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Neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain and arm pain, these can all be caused by a herniated disc.
If left untreated, it can lead to severe nerve damage, but now a new procedure is helping doctors get people up and moving pain free.
Just opening a cupboard was almost impossible for 51-year-old Kellie Weathers a few years ago.
"I was just having like, really, really bad headaches. I had a lot of tingling in my fingers down my arm," Weathers said.
Weathers thought it was her shoulder.
"When I took an MRI, they found out it was actually my neck," Weathers said.
As a receptionist, the toll of sitting at a desk 10 hours a day, for 13 years caught up with her. Weathers had two herniated discs by the time she saw Mercy Hospital Neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Park.
"She came and says, you know, I cannot work anymore. The pain is really debilitating," Park said.
The outer portion of Weathers' discs ruptured and some of the softer material inside squeezed out and was hitting her nerves.
Physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxers and steroid shots didn't take away her pain. Dr. Park used an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion or ACDF to help.
"Anterior means from the front, right? Anterior. Cervical means in the neck. Discectomy means are actually removing all the disc away from the nerve, and the fusion means they're actually fusing the bone above and below the disc," Park said.
Because Park went in from the front, no muscles were cut, and he says recovery is 50 percent faster than traditional fusion.
Weathers went home from surgery the next day and was back to work in four weeks.
"This is actually one of the best surgeries that we do. It's like more than 95 percent successful, right?" Park said.
People ages 30 to 50 are most likely to get a herniated disc, and it affects men twice as often as women.
A few risk factors include sitting for long periods of time, being overweight, lifting heavy objects, repetitive bending or twisting for work or sports and smoking.
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