L’AQUILA – “New technologies now allow us to carry out spinal operations, which until a few years ago were unthinkable, with the microscope and fiber optic instruments, with a minimally invasive percutaneous approach. However, prevention remains important, by undergoing specialist visits when the symptoms of low back pain, sciatica, neck pain and other pathologies begin to appear and recur over time: you don’t have to go to the neurosurgeon just to be operated on, but also to prevent this from happening. happen.”
This was stated by the neurosurgeon Gilberto Grossi, in taking stock of the activity of one of the peaks of excellence, spinal surgery, of the INI clinic in Canistro, in the province of L’Aquila, which has an agreement in the single specialist in orthopedics and traumatology with the system national healthcare system, and which is part of the national INI Group, which has been operating in Abruzzo, Lazio and central-southern Italy for over 70 years, with 10 healthcare facilities.
“The strong point of back surgery, underlines Grossi, is that in recent years we have managed to specialize in less invasive percutaneous techniques, i.e. under the skin. Until a few years ago, many operations were carried out using large surgical accesses. Today, with the same result, small surgical operations are carried out, in some cases even with local anesthesia, with a consequent reduction in hospitalization times and rapid recovery of the patient’s functionality”.
Even in the case of demanding operations such as vertebral arthrodeses or herniated discs, continues Grossi, “thanks to the minimization of access and blood loss, by virtue of the short duration of the operation, the patients are immobilized with the torso and start physiotherapy. As regards specifically the treatment of low back pain, thanks to endoscopic techniques, i.e. with joint cleaning operations, we avoid interventions of much greater impact. Another of our strong points is that the INI in Canistro can boast a cutting-edge radiology centre, and this is very important in the pre-operative diagnosis phase”.
Finally, prevention: “we have noted with satisfaction that here at INI, even from other regions, patients come to be examined early, and not when they are in critical conditions. In short, the message in favor of prevention is starting to arrive: it is necessary to consult a specialist from the first symptoms, avoiding the pathology from worsening”.
