Young patients are benefiting from an innovative procedure at BC Children’s Hospital.
Traditional surgeries to correct scoliosis, an often crippling back condition, are effective but come with serious side-effects.
“I was kinda scared, ’cause I didn’t want my back to get all squished together and stuff,” says Nia Misiak, a 12-year-old who has been meeting with doctors at the hospital.
At first she and her parents thought she just had a sore back, but as the pain worsened she went to a doctor and was eventually diagnosed with scoliosis.
Scoliosis occurs in one to two per cent of the population, and of that about two of every thousand patients need surgery.
Because Misiak’s spine is still growing, BC Children’s Hospital has chosen not to fuse her spine. Instead, doctors will tether it, allowing her to maintain range of motion.
“We’ll make three to five small incisions on her chest and put a camera in. And with the camera we’re going to be putting screws in the bodies. And then we lay this tether on the outside of that,” says Dr. Firoz Miyanji.
Misiak’s surgery takes place next week.