As individuals age, bones lose a few of their construction. Osteopenia and osteoporosis are each circumstances by which bones turn into much less dense and, subsequently, can break extra simply. These sorts of bone density points are widespread amongst spinal surgery sufferers who’re 50 and older. To keep away from surgical problems, Mayo Clinic works with these sufferers on bettering bone health before spinal surgery.
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Making positive a affected person’s bones are as healthy as potential before present process spinal surgery has been proven to decrease the speed of problems.
“These are already high-risk surgeries. And so we want to get the risks as low as possible before proceeding,” says Dr. Benjamin Elder, a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon.
Dr. Elder says some grownup deformity surgery in addition to reconstructive and revision surgical procedures contain attaching screws or different {hardware} to strengthen and stabilize the backbone.
“If you think about putting a screw into drywall or into a stud, there’s a big difference. And so some of the patients with severe bone density issues or severe osteoporosis, their bone is not even drywall, it’s kind of the paper on the drywall. So if we put screws into it, they’ll pull out immediately,” he says.
Mayo Clinic neurosurgeons and endocrinologists, who focus on bone metabolism, work collectively to assist sufferers enhance bone mineral density before spinal surgery.
The bone-strengthening remedy can embrace drugs that assist construct bone again up, in addition to implementing way of life adjustments.
“Before any sort of our spine fusion surgeries, we make patients stop all nicotine use, as that has a significant decline in the fusion rate. And it can also have effects on wound healing,” says Dr. Elder.
