JoAnn L.
This 57-year-old woman is the wife of an Orthopaedic Surgeon from Kansas. She came to see Dr. Lehman after being told that she needed her entire spine fused because of her scoliosis and right hip pain. She was very active, fit, and liked to garden and play tennis.
After extensive testing and imaging of her spine, Dr. Lehman sat down with her and her husband to go over the many options to address her condition. After presenting all of the studies, they collectively decided to perform a limited fusion (much smaller than had been recommended by others) from L3-ilium/pelvis. The thought process was that if she was able to live 5, 10, or 20 years with this smaller surgery, she would still have some motion in her spine.
She successfully underwent this surgery and recovered well. She is now 1 year post surgery and has no discomfort.