Some features should not be overlooked in the diagnosis and treatment of herniated disc in the elderly.
During the examination, the straight leg lift test may not show as obvious findings as in young people.
Since the existing canal is narrowed, patients may have complaints such as leg pain, numbness-tingling in the legs, which occurs with walking and compels them to sit after walking for a while.
Elderly patients may have additional pathologies involving the cardiovascular system or other systems, so more care should be taken when deciding on surgical treatment in these patients. If surgical treatment is absolutely necessary, it should first be determined whether this procedure can be performed under general anesthesia by completely putting the patient to sleep. If it is inconvenient for the patient to receive general anesthesia, then he is taken into the operation while he is awake by completely numbing the lower part of the waist, which we call spinal anesthesia, and the operation is performed without feeling any pain. With this type of surgery, satisfactory results can also be obtained in elderly patients.
If the patient has stenosis of the spinal canal together with herniated disc, then the canal is widened in the same session during the surgery. Thus, some negative developments that may occur in the patient in the future are prevented.
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The stenosis in the spinal canal of an elderly patient is shown with arrows in the magnetic |
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resonance photograph |
