Toril Hanssen is excited. It’s just before now. Just one last conversation with the surgeon before she goes under anesthesia. Today she will finally have the back surgery she has been waiting for for months. Maybe she avoided waking up every night with pain. – It is a routine intervention and takes about an hour, explains surgeon Eric Loratang Kgomotso. Last conversation before surgery for Toril Hanssen and surgeon Eric Kgomotso at Hagevik Kysthospital. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news Hanssen is anxious, but ready for the operation. – The dream is to be able to dance all night, as I used to be able to. It is not a matter of course that Hanssen should be offered surgery at all. In many other countries, they have to prioritize harder. But Norwegian back doctors now believe they have proven that a shorter, cheaper and more gentle intervention is just as effective as what is common in most places for this type of ailment. Equally good over time The Norwegian method has been in use for several years. In 2021, the researchers published an award-winning research report on it. In short, they show that in the case of the common back pain spinal stenosis, it is effective to simply open up the vertebra, and screws or braces are not needed to avoid recurrence. The body is able to sort itself out. – The benefit is that it is much cheaper, goes faster and is gentler on the patient, says Kgomotso. The new research results, recently published in the renowned British Medical Journal, prove that this method has just as good results as the more extensive interventions. The patients do not relapse more often, and there is not a large proportion that has to be operated on again. Kgomotso is the main author of the article, but it is a collective Norwegian academic community that is behind the research. Contributors come from all healthcare companies. Coastal hospital Hagevik in Bjørnafjorden municipality performs several hundred back operations annually. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news Hoping to convince the rest of the world Back operations without screws have been the norm in Norway and Sweden for several years. After the research was first presented, the method has gradually gained a foothold. But many have been skeptical. – One of the arguments against has been that it has been thought that this method will not produce equally lasting results. But we have now disproved that. That’s according to Ivar Magne Austevoll, senior doctor in orthopedics at Helse Bergen. He has been central to the research work. Ivar Magne Austevoll has long been central to research into simple back procedures. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – It can have major positive ripple effects if several countries adopt it. They can help more people, and there are lower requirements for such operations. This particularly applies to poor countries, Austevoll believes. He says the opposition has been greatest in the United States. The explanation for that could be that this type of back surgery is a billion-dollar industry there. Awake without pain Around 4,000 operations of this type are performed in Norway each year. About a thousand of these had previously been stiffened with screws or braces. On a global basis, it is estimated that over one hundred million patients have spinal stenosis. In the USA alone, there are 600,000 operations annually. But the day after the operation was anything but routine for Toril Hanssen. – I woke up without pain. It’s the first time in a long, long time. Already after a day she can go home again. – The pain in the back and foot is no longer there. I’m so glad I was able to do this. And soon she hopes to be able to dance the night away. The day after the operation, the pain is gone for Toril Hanssen. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news Published 12.08.2024, at 19.54
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Simple interventions in the back are just as good as complicated ones – news Vestland
