Jimu news reporter Liu Xun
Correspondent Gao Chenchen
Suffering from cerebral palsy, boys can stumble and walk when they are young, but as they grow older, their right legs shrink tighter and tighter, and they can't stand up. Recently, in the Department of Neurosurgery at Wuhan Children's Hospital, doctors surgically cut off the nerve roots that "made it bad" and successfully "untied" his right leg. On 20 January, the child recovered and was discharged from the hospital. Experts expect that after six months to 1 year of rehabilitation, the boy can walk again.
The boy, Little Tiger (not his real name), is 16 years old and was born with a history of suffocation. As the tiger grew older, the mother observed that the tiger developed significantly later than its peers. Until the age of 2, the little tiger did not learn to walk, but the "lower plate" was unstable, especially the right leg was obviously weak, and the speech was not as clear as that of children of the same age. At the local hospital, Xiaohu was diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy. Hearing the diagnosis, the whole family felt like a thunderbolt on a sunny day.
Before the operation, the legs of the little tiger were like "rust" shrinking tighter and tighter
The mother decided to do everything possible to save her son and take the tiger to start rehabilitation training, however, although there was some improvement, but as he grew older, the tiger's right leg became more and more "stiff", from unable to stretch until it became tighter and tighter. Even if the family helps, it can only stretch to 80-90 degrees at most, unable to stand, let alone walk. Not only that, the ankle joint of the tiger's right foot was also deformed and could not move normally. Little Tiger's mother was impatient. After being introduced, Xiaohu's mother took him to the Department of Neurosurgery of Wuhan Children's Hospital for help.
How to release the right leg of the tiger with severe spasms? In surgery, there are orthopedic surgeries, drug injections, and selective partial peripheral nerve dissection. After repeated deliberations, Du Hao, the director of the department, decided to give Xiaohu a selective spinal nerve heel amputation (SPR surgery). On January 8, after thorough preoperative preparations, Director Du Hao and Dr. Huang Lingyue operated on Xiaohu. The specialist opens the spine, finds the spinal nerve under the surgical microscope, divides it into 4 to 8 "groups", and uses an electrical stimulator to perform electrical stimulation separately. According to the monitoring results, the experts "grabbed" the nerve roots that reacted abnormally strongly, selectively cut it, and cut off the "passage" of the abnormal reflex arc. After the operation, the muscle tone of the tiger decreased significantly, and the right leg was basically straightened. At present, he is doing rehabilitation training, and experts expect that after half a year to 1 year of rehabilitation training, the tiger can walk again.
After surgery, the right leg can be basically straightened
Du Hao, director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Wuhan Children's Hospital, introduced that cerebral palsy is a disease mainly caused by brain lesions. In the past, children could only undergo rehabilitation, but rehabilitation alone had certain limitations. The posterior root of the spinal nerve is the sensory root of the human body and is related to muscle tone. The patient's limbs are in a state of spasm, unable to walk normally, because the muscle tone is too strong. Cutting off part of the spinal nerve heel will not affect the child's health, but can relieve muscle tone, make it as close as possible to normal state, and create conditions for the child's subsequent rehabilitation training and recovery of motor function.
In order to ensure the efficacy of the operation and minimize complications, the choice of "nerve roots" is crucial, and this requires a professional team as a guarantee. According to the literature search, at present, there have been no reports of the operation being carried out in Hubei Province. XiaoHu came late for treatment, but the operation still improved him a lot. Experts recommend that the treatment be performed at the age of 3-6, when the child's weight pressure is small and the bones and muscles have not formed deformities, which is more effective.