Ho Chi Minh City: After surgery, woman grows 8cm taller

Dr. Ho Nhat Tam, Head of the Spine Unit, Trung Vuong Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that doctors at the hospital had just successfully treated a patient over 60 years old with scoliosis, lumbar-thoracic spine deformity, and lumbar radiculopathy due to severe spinal stenosis.

X-ray images of patient before and after surgery

Accordingly, the patient said that 20 years ago, she started having severe pain in her lower back. Taking western medicine did not relieve the pain, so she switched to traditional medicine for a few months and the pain subsided. However, she stopped treatment because she felt swollen.

Then, at the age of 50, she went to a specialized hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and was diagnosed with severe degenerative scoliosis with lumbar disc herniation, but the hospital did not do anything further.

In 2019, the patient often had dull pain in the lower back and went to the pharmacy to buy temporary medicine. The pain was slightly reduced but not completely gone. The back pain gradually increased, and she discovered that her back was clearly crooked to the right. Because every time she had back pain, leaning to the right would relieve the pain. Therefore, after a long time, her body became completely crooked. At this time, the back pain also increased significantly, the medicine was no longer effective, but she still did not go to the doctor.

After surgery, the patient grew 8cm taller.

One month after being admitted to the hospital, the patient had severe pain in her lower back, spreading down to both legs, numbness in both legs, difficulty walking, increased pain when bending and back, and had to rest for a while after walking 5-10 meters before continuing. This time, due to the inconvenience in her daily life, she decided to be hospitalized for treatment.

At the Spine Unit, Trung Vuong Hospital, the results of the whole body X-ray-EOS and MRI showed that the patient had thoracic-lumbar scoliosis (from thoracic 1 to thoracic 11); compression of the spinal canal and corresponding nerve roots; degenerative spondylosis in the form of fatty degeneration; deformity and loss of physiological curvature of the lumbar spine...

Doctors diagnosed the patient with severe lumbar spine degeneration causing spinal deformity: thoracic-lumbar scoliosis, multi-level lumbar spinal stenosis L2L3, L3L4, L4L5, L5S1 causing nerve root compression and spinal imbalance.

"After diagnosis, we performed decompression surgery, bone grafting, discectomy, and lumbar interbody fusion with posterior PEEK wedges, combined with anterior-posterior curvature correction of the lumbar spine with condylar screws," said Dr. Tam.

After 7 hours and 30 minutes of successful surgery, the patient grew 8cm taller. Now he can walk straight, his body and head no longer lean forward when walking or standing, the pain and numbness in his right leg are completely gone, his left leg is still very slightly numb, almost normal, and his muscle strength is completely restored.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/suc-khoe/tp-hcm-sau-phau-thuat-nguoi-phu-nu-cao-them-8cm-20230424073837377.htm