Dr. Yazdi shares his incredible opportunity to be part of a surgical spine team that traveled to Ethiopia to perform complex spinal deformity surgeries.
The day started as usual. Our only patient was a 22-year-old male with a double major curve. The plan was T4 to L4 fusion and instrumentation with multiple level SPO’s. The case was uneventful. The team rounded on the patients one last time before they …
The day started as usual. Everybody in the ICU was doing well. The chest tube from our first patient would be coming out soon. Today we were operating on a 25-year-old male with a major thoracic curve. The surgery would involve fusion and instrumentation from …
We started the day very smoothly. The first case was the 13-year-old female we saw in the clinic yesterday. She had a major thoracic curve requiring fusion and instrumentation from T4 to L2. The patient was asleep, positioned on the operating table, prepped and draped, …
We started our day by rounding on our postoperative patients. The patient from last week that needed a chest tube looked well. But the patient that we did three days ago continued to drain blood from his incision. He would be at risk of getting …
Today we operated on a 20 year old female with a T 12 hemivertebrae. As a result of that asymmetric growth, she had developed a significant thoracolumbar scoliosis. Our plan was to place pedicle screws above and below the hemivertebrae. We would then dissect out …
Another day, another major surgery. This patient was a 25-year-old female who had a double major curve. This was a similar situation to our first patient: however, she was older, and her spine was stiffer. The treatment was very similar, T4-L4 fusion and instrumentation and …
Today our first patient was a 20-year-old male with Scheuermann’s kyphoscoliosis. A normal vertebral body has the shape of a cylinder. In Sheuermann’s disease, at least three of the vertebrae are wedge shaped by at least 10° each. Typically, Sheuermann’s disease results in kyphosis of …
Our first case of the day was a 17-year-old female with a major thoracic curve. As was our routine, while the patient was being prepped and draped, we reviewed all the films and our surgical planning. The surgery involved fusion and instrumentation from T4 to …
Our first patient is an 18-year-old female with a double major curve. This means that she has a significant curve in the thoracic area and another one in the lumbar area that do not straighten out below 25° when she bends from side to side. …
On our first day in Ethiopia we met Dr. Rick Hodes who runs one of the largest spine clinics in Africa. We then met Birhanu. As we toured the hospital, Stephanie and Francis were telling us about all the improvements compared to the previous year. …