Patna, April 24: Neuro surgeries without deep incision of the spine and other breakthroughs in medical science comprised the topics discussed on the concluding day of the two-day workshop at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital today.

The workshop on spinal instrumentation was organised by Indian Orthopaedic Association and Postgraduate Orthopaedic Update.

About 150 neuro surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons, including 25 specialists, from across the country took part in the event.

During the workshop, veteran orthopaedic surgeons demonstrated the latest techniques of spine surgery on models.

The associate professor of orthopaedics, Patna Medical College and Hospital, Dr Vishvendu Kumar Sinha, said the spine is a vital body organ and it might lose its stability and mobility due to problems like trauma, tuberculosis, scoliosis, ageing and surgery-related complications. “This damage to the spine makes people paralysed and bed-ridden in the form of paraplegia or quadriplegia. Traumatic paraplegia and quadriplegia afflicts about 20,000 people in the country every year,” he said.

“In cases like these, the patients lose control of urination and defecation and the area below the injury spot becomes numb. Injury or instability of the spine causes damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots inside the spine connecting the brain to the body. Such people are treated by different techniques of spinal instrumentation,” he said.

At the workshop, experts discussed the subject in detail and surgeons demonstrated surgeries on plastic models of the bone. Dr Sameer Dalvie from Mumbai showed a technique of fixing difficult spinal injuries, which occur during hanging.

Dr Yuvraj from Apollo Hospital, Delhi, demonstrated a less invasive technique of percutaneous fixation of the spine, which requires minimal dissection.

The participating spine surgeons also talked on how to prevent damage to motor nerves during invasive surgery.