Back Pain: Groundbreaking 3D Models Help in Pre-Surgical Planning
You and your orthopaedic surgeon have agreed. You need surgery to end your back pain for good. But how did you come to this conclusion? Are you sure every tool available was used to determine that surgery is the solution? What next? Will your surgeon be well prepared to perform the operation?
Perhaps you have tried every other avenue suggested, chiropractic treatment, back braces, and physical therapy. Nothing has worked to alleviate your back ache. Your chiropractor and physical therapist have given up and agree that your only option is surgery for decompression. Maybe you need to question their methods as well as your surgeon's on reaching a final diagnosis.
A dynamic new tool is available for aiding in the diagnosis and pre-surgical planning for lower back pain. Not all practitioners have been informed. Before going under the knife, it is up to you to make sure your caregivers have considered all of the available instruments on the market to aid them in giving you the best possible treatment for your back pain.
Once introduced to a 3-D spinal model that best replicates your spine and the pain you have been enduring, a trained professional can then determine if the diagnosis is correct. If so, the model will then aid in pre-surgery planning for long-lasting results. A 3-D model can help your orthopaedic surgeon focus on the exact location and substance that needs removal or correction before going into the operating room. This may result in less-invasive surgery requiring only lasers, or less overall time performing an open back surgery. Well thought out plans could even mean a shorter hospital stay and recovery time for you.
No one is perfect, but enlightened with the right tools, a talented surgeon can do a better job than if working in the dark. Your surgeon has probably performed numerous successful back surgeries using only one-dimensional images for diagnosis and preparation. You can choose to rely on old-fashioned methods, too, but when something better arrives as an option to pre-planning your surgery, newer and better should be in your plan. Don't settle for less than the latest available tool.
As exciting as this technology is, unfortunately it isn't well known in the surgical community. Be sure let your physician or surgeon know about these amazing 3D models so that you can be sure that they have the very best tools available when planning on how they are going to operate on you.