Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer
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Dr Carl Bruce (left) and Dr Kingsley Chin. - Contributed photos |
Two Jamaican medical doctors - University of the West Indies consultant neurosurgeon Dr Carl Bruce and Harvard-trained, United States-based orthopaedic spine surgeon Dr Kingsley Chin - are mending badly damaged spines and sending patients home in record time from the University Hospital of the West Indies.
Charged by the Medical Association of Jamaica and the Ministry of Health to present the latest techniques being pursued in spine surgery, Bruce and Chin are now making keyhole cuts through patients' sides (flanks) to treat serious spinal damage.
Smaller incisions
Gone are the long surgical cuts in the backs of patients with spine damage, as less exposure surgery (LES), procedures are now performed on the spine with minimal damage to the soft tissue.
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| Dr Carl Bruce (centre) and Dr Kingsley Chin (left), assisted by a nurse as they perform a Less Exposure Surgery at the University Hospital of the West Indies |
"Some say keyhole surgeries, but we call it less exposure surgeries. So we performed a less exposure spine surgery, the first of its kind in the Caribbean, where rather than opening the back to see the spine, we went through the patient's side and did the procedure.
"After that, we use tiny keyholes in the back, to fix the spine. It's the first time we had done the keyhole fixation with the screws," explained Bruce. Flank cuts were done for the second time in last month's surgery, but using screws through the keyholes was being done for the first time.
"It is surgery that results in advanced patient recovery time; less blood loss; less time in hospital and quicker time to return to work. We also wanted to make sure that these new techniques come out comparable or cheaper to the older open surgery," explained Bruce. more
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