Mr Lucas provides a wide range of surgical and minimally invasive procedures for correcting and managing spinal conditions in children and young adults.
As well as Mr Lucas’ expertise and experience, you’ll get rapid access to treatment with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.
The treatments he offers include:
For patients with a curve of 40 degrees that’s continuing to progress, or 50 degrees at skeletal maturity, surgery is usually the recommended option.
The main objectives of surgery are to straighten the spine as much as possible, and maintain correction to stop the curve progressing into adulthood.
This procedure involves an incision on the back. How long that incision is – and therefore how long the scar will be – will be depends on how many vertebrae are involved in the curve.
During surgery the muscles are temporarily detached from the spine to allow the surgeon to access the bones. Screws and hooks are inserted into the vertebrae and act as anchors to pull the curved spine into a straighter position. They are then attached to strong metal rods that maintain the new position of the spine while the bones fuse together over the next one to two years.
Synthetic bone graft is added to the bones to strengthen the fusion and finally the muscles and skin are sutured back into position.
In anterior surgery, the incision is from the side and may require removing a rib. The diaphragm is released from the chest wall and spine, so the surgeon has a clear view of the thoracic and lumbar spinal vertebral bodies.
The surgeon removes some discs to release the spine, before placing screws in the vertebral bodies and straightening the curve, which is then held in position with a rod.
The piece of rib removed earlier is then used as bone graft material and implanted into the spaces left by the removed discs to facilitate the fusion.
To arrange your consultation with Mr Lucas, you can contact us by phone or email.
Our phone lines are open Monday – Friday, 8am – 6pm.