This video explains the principles behind Lumbar and Cervical Fusions. This video highlights the biology, histology, and what happens on the microscopic level during a fusion. If you or someone you know needs to be seen in regards to Cervical or Lumbar fusion feel free to look us up online www.beverlyspine.com or call toll free 1-8SPINECAL-1

1. Pablo Pazmiño, MD

7. At the 3 month -6 month window your bones are starting to reapproximate or get “sticky” This is similar to a Woven Bone phase Woven bone is soft , yet sturdy, similar to the bone on the skull of a newborn. Strong enough to hold the contents inside but not as strong as our final fusion bone.

12. Here is a cross section of bone and the cells which actually make bone called osteoblasts.

13. 36 year old female 76 year old female Note the increased porosity

14. I like these slides because they highlight the fact that within the central cavity of each bone is a tiny blood vessel. This one vessel will feed the bone all the nutrients require to fuse. All our fusion will then depends on ensuring the circulation to this area

16. I often use a bone stimulator. We know that this stimulates the bony cells to align and cross the fracture gap. This helps to ensure healing and therefore fusion.

23. Here is a very common example of when you would need a fusion which I see often in my practice. Many people have a condition that is called Spondylolisthesis. This is an instability in their spine that causes severe back and leg pain.

25. . The term “spondylolisthesis” was coined in 1854 from the Greek language “spondylo” for vertebrae and “olisthesis” for slip. The word for vertebrae in the Greek language is Spondylo The word for slip is “ olisthesis ”

27. Unfortunately this happens every time my patients bend forward or extend. They feel this as a sciatic pain in their legs or an aching back pain. As you can imagine this can potentially cause permanent nerve damage. If we remove the bone pinching the nerve the pain will no longer be an issue, since there is nothing physically hurting the nerve .

28. Unfortunately this destabilizes the spine more so than it was before. We have devised a way to limit the motion of the two vertebral bodies and therefore remove the source of pain. We lock the vertebral bodies in relation to one another using screws, next we hold these screws together with small rods. All performed in a minimally invasive manner.

31. Vitoss is a substance that can be placed at the time of surgery to help ensure solid fusion. Look here at the histology which shows the pink bone maturing into green fused bone after Vitoss use.