Uganda Spine Surgery Mission 2016: Day 16

​… And then there were eight. Dr. Kerner and her plastics crew left for the airport this morning. Leaving us with a bit of a skeleton crew for the final stretch. We were all sad to see them go. 

​One last group shot with Dr. Kerner and her team. Left to right: Sue, Lance, Lorna, Sean, Megan, Dr. Kerner, Dr. St. Clair, Jordan, Bogden, Alvina and Michelle.
 
We started the operative day with a 12-year-old girl, Sheila, with congenital scoliosis. We instrumented her spine from T3-T12 and Dr. St. Clair performed some corrective maneuvers to get her spine into a more normal alignment.
 

Our second and third cases for the day were adult patients with degenerative disease in their lumbar spine. Both had severe back pain (from degeneration of the discs and facet joints) as well as leg pain (from compression of the nerves running through the spinal canal).

An L4-L5 decompression and fusion for Emelda, a lady with back and leg pain.

​Our third case was an L3 – L5 decompression and fusion in a lady with back and leg pain.
 
 
Several of our patients presented with lower extremity weakness that persisted despite our interventions. We worked with local suppliers to acquire wheelchairs for these patients to assist with mobility, and many have begun to become accustomed to using a wheelchair around the hospital grounds. Michelle and Jordan even enlisted some of the youngsters nearby (who were eager to help) in the wheelchair training process.

Julius, our patient with scoliosis related to an infection who had surgery last Wednesday.

Bashir, our patient with congenital scoliosis from last Thursday.

Kato, our patient with the T4 fracture who had surgery last Friday.