Prescription Health: Too old for surgery?
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For some patients, getting the medical procedure they need is challenging not because of insurance or money, but because of their age.
Larry Craver, 88, said he had back pain that was so severe it became unbearable to walk. Doctors told him 88 was too old for surgery.
“[They were] just saying that this was permanent, No doctor thought that [he] could survive surgery,” Larry’s daughter, Mary, said. “He told me with the severe pain he didn't want to go on living, and that was really very hard for me to hear."
Larry finally met a neurosurgeon willing to consider a patient his age.
X-rays showed scoliosis, a cyst on his spine, and a condition called spondylolisthesis — where a vertebra slips out of place.
“I suspected that these were not the main drivers of his symptoms,” Timothy J. Chryssikos, a neurosurgeon with the University of Maryland Medical Center, said.
Chryssikos opted for a standard decompression using an operating microscope instead of a high-risk spinal fusion open back surgery.
“Essentially, our goals of surgery were to remove bone and ligament from the back that were contributing to this severe pinching of the nerve roots,” Chryssikos said.
Six months later, Larry is not only walking pain-free. He's doing push-ups off his bedroom dresser.
Open spine surgeries like the one doctors performed on Larry have slightly larger incisions than minimally invasive surgeries, but are considered less painful and have faster recovery times than spinal fusions.
Watch the video above for the full story.
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