Artemis Doctors successfully treated rare case tuberculosis of spine patient

23-year-old Aryavrat with a complaint of back pain that had lasted for three months was diagnosed to have Tuberculosis of spine and was started on antitubercular treatment, elsewhere.

The patient was presented to Dr. Rajesh Verma, Head Orthopaedics, Director Trauma & Spine Surgery Artemis, Gurgaon when the symptoms persisted and with sudden onset of weakness of both lower limbs for last 3 days. He was completely paralysed and unable to move his both lower limbs. He was admitted, investigated and found to have complete destruction of two vertebral bodies i.e. D9 and D10 with severe compression of spinal cord and adjoining nerve roots. After all examinations, Artemis team of doctor taken him for emergency decompression surgery by an innovative approach.

Talking about the case Dr. Rajesh Verma, said “Normally, such surgeries are done by two big incisions, one anteriorly and one posteriorly. But, we went through single incision, two ribs were removed and through thoracic cavity we reached the site of infection. There was complete destruction of the vertebral bodies and there was a lot of pus, dirty granulation tissue which was severely compressing the nerve roots and spinal cord”.

The whole of destroyed vertebral bodies and pus, granulation tissue was removed and the dead space created by removal of vertebral bodies was replaced with a metallic expandable cage which was filled with bone graft taken from his iliac crest. To strengthen the adjoining spine, it was fixed with 8 screws and two rods.

Just 3 days after the surgery, showed that patient is completely relieved of pain and has almost completely recovered of the paralysis. Aryavrat is now able to move both his lower limbs well and can stand and walk. He is extremely happy with the result of the surgery and tirelessly thanks the surgery team.