Surgery cures back pain; woman plans to skydive

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For years, Catherine Thetford endured lower back pain. After surgery at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, Theford no longer needs pain medication and plans to skydive for her 60th birthday. | stock.xchng

Updated: September 29, 2011 12:33AM

JOLIET — For more than five years, Catherine Thetford, 60, endured progressively worsening lower back pain that shot down her legs and calves, causing numbness in her feet and searing pain in her toes.

It became so bad that she could barely perform even the most basic activities of walking, standing, shopping or housework. Almost everything beyond sitting was painful.

In late January, the Odell resident’s life changed when she underwent a new type of minimally invasive spine surgery at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center (PSJMC) in Joliet. The minute she woke up from the procedure, she knew that the back pain was gone.

“Immediately, I could tell that all the pain I had from the vertebrae pressing down on nerves went away,” Thetford said.

“The only pain I had was from the surgery itself, which I fully expected. It’s been almost two months now and I can do anything I want. I never thought it would be this good, this fast. I had pain in so many different spots, and I was hoping for a lessening of the pain. But it’s even better than that, because I have no pain.”

Doctor’s action plan

Spinal surgeon Dr. Chintan Sampat performed the surgery at PSJMC. Sampat is an expert in treating spondylolisthesis, which is a slip in the spine that causes spinal stenosis.

Thetford was referred to Sampat by her longtime family physician who was familiar with Sampat’s expertise in addressing back and spine problems. Sampat examined the patient several times, ordered new MRI scans of her lower back and tried different types of nonsurgical treatments, such as physical therapy and epidural injections, prior to surgery.

“Most people who have debilitating pain radiating from their back and lower extremities don’t need spine surgery,” Sampat said. “But in this case, the other treatments were not working, and Catherine was getting progressively weaker. That’s when we considered surgery.”

Sampat noted that surgery often is needed when there is progressive loss of function, such as pain, numbness, weakness, difficulty with walking, changes in bowel or bladder function, or difficulty with movement

‘Reduction screw’

Sampat saw this patient as an ideal candidate for a procedure involving what’s known as a “minimally invasive reduction screw” that allows a surgeon to correct the slip in the spine through a small incision. This process requires far less cutting and surgical trauma than a traditional procedure.

The screw is manufactured by a company called SeaSpine Inc., a southern California company specializing in the design and manufacture of spinal instrumentation.

Sampat has been consulting on the clinical applications of the SeaSpine system for the past year.

“This new type of screw has some amazing applications, and it’s so different from the traditional technique,” Sampat said. “We were able to complete this procedure in just over three hours, which is faster and with far less blood loss than we would have had otherwise. Due to less soft-tissue cutting and scarring, Catherine was able to go home three days after the surgery to begin physical therapy.”

Patient to skydive for 60th birthday

By the time of her two-week checkup, Thetford no longer needed pain medication and was walking freely without any assistive device or brace.

Traditional surgery would have required a body cast or use of a brace for about six months to a year until the patient’s spine properly fused.

“Now, for instance, I can go for a half-hour walk, whereas before I couldn’t go for a 10-minute walk because I had so much pain that I had to stop,” Thetford said. “I just have to build up my strength to get back to doing the things that I haven’t done for years.”

Her reward to herself is to try skydiving to celebrate her 60th birthday.

“When I knew I was going to have the surgery, I asked Sampat about that, and he said I could do it this year instead of waiting longer as I was expecting. I’m really looking forward to that.”

Sampat prefers to perform this type of surgery and many other spinal procedures at PSJMC for a number of reasons. The Neuro Intensive Care Unit is unique to the area, for example, ideally suited to supporting complex cases, and the nursing staff is highly trained in spine surgery.

Other high-tech equipment

Another key advantage is the ready availability of a high-tech device called the O-arm® Imaging System. PSJMC is one of just eight hospitals in the entire Chicago area with this technology. The O-arm provides the surgeon with real-time, three-dimensional imaging while the procedure is in progress.

“The O-arm at Saint Joes makes it much safer to undergo this type of surgery and check all the implants to make sure everything’s in the right place,” Sampat said. “So I prefer to do them at Saint Joes because the O-arm provides a third set of eyes.”

For more information on treatment of spine and back problems, contact Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center at 815-725-7133, or learn more at www.provena.org/stjoes/.

To make an appointment with Sampat, call 815-727-3030.

Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center was recently named a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery.

To earn this designation, Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center was evaluated based on an objective, evidence-based selection criteria established with input from expert physicians and medical organizations.