Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare - (Page 54)

y ... Mng Back Oh i SPOTLIGHT ON COMMUNITY HOSPITAL Minimally invasive surgery with maximum results W Ach hen your back is aching and your whole body hurts, everyday activities such as getting out of bed or walking become unbearable. Often people suffer through the pain because they do not want to undergo conventional back surgery. Most who have had the standard, open procedure to relieve back pain or pressure have endured large incisions and a lengthy recovery period. Over the last several years, both surgical and nonsurgical spine care have seen tremendous advances because of better imaging, better understanding of the functional dynamics of the spinal column and improved surgical techniques. As a result of these advances, the days of exploratory spine surgery with poor results have been replaced by precise, targeted surgical techniques with vastly better outcomes, quicker patient recovery and increased satisfaction. One of the most signiﬁcant advances in spinal surgery is the introduction of minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The MIS technique aims to optimize patient outcomes—reduce tissue injury, decrease pain and enable more rapid recovery—by limiting the size of the surgical incision. MIS is aided by improved visualization through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which allows the surgeon to get high-deﬁnition images of the body’s interior. GOING HOME QUICKER At Community Hospital in Munster, many spinal procedures are performed using MIS. “MIS is to spinal surgery what cardiac catheterization and angioplasty was to the treatment of heart disease,” says Dwight Tyndall, M.D., orthopedic spine surgeon on staff at Community Hospital in Munster. “It is a complete change and signiﬁcantly improved way of performing surgery on the spine. I have seen tremendous improvement in my patients’ outcomes and satisfaction from their surgeries.” The advantages in using MIS techniques are less traumatic to the surrounding tissue, less blood loss and quicker recovery, Tyndall says. Rather than the typical three- to ﬁve-day hospital stay, patients can usually be discharged after an overnight stay or even the same day. There is also a jump-start to therapy and spinal reconditioning, and much faster overall rehabilitation and return to normal physical activities. “In the operating room, we have seen more and more spine procedures being done using MIS,” says John Olmstead, director of Surgical Services at Community Hospital. “Using these techniques pita ls of Com munity ove r the yea rs and the hos Spi ne care has adv anced tec hnique s and g new, min ima lly inv asive Hea lthc are Sys tem are usin k pai n. pro cedure s to relieve bac 54 Vim & Vigor · W IN TER 2 010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Community Briefs
Special: Stroke of Luck
Healing Heroes from the Inside Out
A Step Ahead of PAD
Smart Moves
Miss Information
Stroke Sense
Gut Feelings
The Scoop on Stress
The Faces of Skin Cancer
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
A Natural Dilemma
17 Reasons to Work in Healthcare
Spotlight on St. Catherine Hospital
Spotlight on St. Mary Medical Center
Spotlight on Community Hospital
Hospitals Unite

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare