We often and reluctantly talk about bad healthcare. This is done to report poor services and scandals in the public health service. Today, however, we are talking about good healthcare, that of our home: specifically the success of revolutionary interventions at the neurosurgery clinic of the “San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d’Aragona” University Hospital in Salerno.
An excellence in public health awaiting definitive consecration.
In recent times, innovation and research in the neurosurgical field have increasingly made Salerno a cutting-edge center for minimally invasive spinal surgery.
Three new innovative neurosurgical microsurgery procedures have literally given back
to life young patients from the Amalfi Coast.
A first, very recent case concerns a young man of just 18 years of age: he was practically bedridden and, immediately after the operation (which had not been planned), immediately got back on his feet.
The events begin when the young man falls to the ground with his scooter following a road accident.
After an initial visit to the Castiglione emergency room, the boy was admitted to the hospital
neurosurgery department of the Ruggi d’Aragona Hospital in Salerno.
Here, following various instrumental tests, the fracture of a vertebra of the bone is diagnosed
spinal column with the need for further investigations regarding a possible spinal cord lesion.
After 24 hours of hospitalization, and further checks, the patient was discharged home with
prescription of absolute immobilization in bed and need for a brace for any need for a
long period.
«We immediately realized that the situation was serious – the young man’s mother tells us – The doctors promptly checked our son’s condition but then advised against the classic surgery because the fracture was compound and only required the formation of the bone callus ; in relation to my son’s young age it was preferable to avoid installing screws and plates and time would take its course. But for this purpose they had prescribed absolute immobility in bed for 45 days! A choice that could however expose my son to the risk of complications and continuous assistance as well as the need for a further long period of muscular rehabilitation to achieve optimal walking; and without considering the psychological implications for an 18-year-old boy practically forced to bed for months with the loss of school attendance, sporting activities and lifelong friendships.”
Shortly after returning home, however, news arrives of a possible alternative consultation.
«In fact, upon returning home, a person close to me informed me of the possibility of checking
an alternative to the classic intervention” adds the lady.
After a few days the young man was visited by the doctor Raffaele Scrofani, a member
of the team of the Ruggi d’Aragona University Neurosurgery Clinic in Salerno – School
Medica Salernitana, also composed of doctors Nicola Narciso, Ettore Amoroso and Matteo De Notaris.
A department now at the forefront in the field founded and directed by professor Giorgio Iaconetta,
professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Salerno.
After the appropriate checks, Dr. Scrofani proceeded with minimally invasive microsurgery to reconstruct the fractured vertebra. A day surgery operation, without the need for
hospitalization. The neurosurgery clinic team poured silicone polymers through
a micro-incision that did not affect the muscle groups or joints, obtaining
the immediate reconstitution of the fractured vertebral body. Shortly after the operation the young 18 year old is
returned home and gradually resumed daily activities.
«I have no words to describe our state of mind – the mother continues to tell us – Even with the prescribed precautions, my son immediately started walking again and after about seven days he became independent again in all his daily life needs. . In a few days we were reborn, going from a prospect of months of convalescence, assistance and rehabilitation, with all the possible complications, to an almost immediate resumption of activities. Today my son goes out safely and is also back at school.”
A few days later a new case of absolute interest involved another young man from the
Costiera treated by the clinicians of Ruggi d’Aragona. In this case, the patient had suffered a collapse
of the vertebrae of the spine in the absence of accidents. For months the young man had actually been bedridden and
treated with pharmacological therapies, resulting in a complex clinical picture that rendered
the possibility of spinal surgery with classic methods is very risky.
After about six months of ordeal, the news of a possible consultation at the University Clinic of
neurosurgery at Ruggi d’Aragona in Salerno. Also in this case, Dr. Scrofani treated the
patient through a minimally invasive vertebroplasty microsurgery operation, and reconstructed well
six vertebrae of the spinal column. An extremely specialized intervention, made possible by the team
of the University Clinic thanks to a series of micro-incisions along the spinal column,
otherwise highly risky according to classical techniques.
Also in this case, shortly after the operation the patient managed to get back on his feet and
he is progressively returning to an independent life.
Last intervention of great interest, for the first time in Salerno, a reconstruction operation
of the lumbar vertebral disc with anterior access.
The operation – carried out as a team by doctors Scrofani, Narciso and Amoroso – consisted of
decompression of pathologies affecting the column and spinal cord with reconstruction of the
lumbar disc now worn out.
The anterior approach spinal surgery was performed via a micro-incision
below the navel and allowed the disc to be reconstructed at the lumbar level, thus passing
through the abdomen and leaving the spine and back muscles intact. This
it means rebuilding the now damaged and lost disc, maintaining all the mobility of the column
spinal, indeed even recovering some degrees that had been lost. An innovation that for
it was also carried out for the first time in Salerno, one of the few centers to carry out a similar intervention in
all Italy.
In short, a series of interventions made possible thanks to the minimally invasive techniques carried out by
Salerno by Dr. Scrofani, with which it is possible to replace vertebral discs or reconstruct entire bodies
vertebrae via micro-incisions.
An absolutely revolutionary technique, which allows you to operate without affecting the integrity of
muscles, vertebral bodies and spinal column. In this way, possible risks are avoided
of the classic intervention, such as spinal pathologies or tissue adhesions, which for years
they now increasingly dissuade intervention at the price of serious risks of immobilization for the
patients. Furthermore, the muscles are not affected and remain solid and the patient stands up straight
day after surgery. After just one day of observation, the patient returns home and is in
able to walk and carry out the ordinary tasks of life, with the prescription of a short
cycle of therapies and food supplements, not having to suffer months of immobilization and
muscular rehabilitation for the resumption of ordinary life activities.
A technical innovation with which the main problems of operations are resolved
classic surgical procedures that are now obsolete. And with which the university neurosurgery clinic became
in a short time, a center of excellence for minimally invasive spinal surgery and a point of reference
for the entire territory thanks to a strong push for innovation and research in the neurosurgical field.
A true excellence for Salerno and for all of Southern Italy which fully qualifies the service
public health system and which today makes Ruggi d’Aragona the point of arrival for numerous patients from all over
Italy and even from abroad. And no longer the starting point of the so-called “journeys of hope”.
In fact, the very extraordinary nature of innovation has led to an exponential growth of
demand for therapies and interventions from numerous patients coming from all over the world.
Thanks to the excellent results achieved and the success of the interventions, there are hundreds of patients on the list
waiting for intervention; numerous reminders via email to the Company to obtain the operation on time
reasonable according to the protocols of the new minimally invasive techniques.
A condition that today entails the need to strengthen the university clinic
neurosurgery, now burdened by lack of timetables and structures, in order to respond promptly and
effectively to the enormous demand of patients now registered on waiting lists for months.
In short, a further element of excellence in the public health panorama, with which Ruggi
of Aragon has quickly become a point of reference for the entire territory. Is that
it requires a final organizational effort to be able to definitively consecrate Salerno as the capital
of research and technological developments in minimally invasive neurosurgery.
Source Quotidianodellacostiera
