Photo caption: Gary Robinson
Since mid-January, Gary Robinson had been dealing with a constant, excruciating pain in his neck, back and left arm.
He knew something wasn’t right after lifting a couple of heavy water buckets while cleaning at his house. Not only wouldn’t it go away, it was getting worse each day.
“I would just put my head down on my desk at work and cry,” said Robinson, 58, of Mokena, manager for a property consulting company. “At home, I couldn’t sleep maybe more than an hour or two. I would go downstairs so my wife Tina didn’t hear me crying.”
He had tried pain meds, steroids and cortisone shots prescribed by doctors, but they helped only a little bit, and only for a little while.
“Then, the pain would come back with a vengeance. At one point, I said to myself, ‘I can’t take this anymore. I didn’t care if I had died.’”
That’s when he came to the Emergency Department at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. During one inpatient stay, Robinson met Dr. Arash Sayari, an orthopedic spine surgeon, specializing in minimally invasive techniques.
“He was in excruciating pain,” Dr. Sayari said of Robinson. During a visit to his office, Dr. Sayari showed him on an MRI where one of his discs toward his neck had ruptured, pinching on a nerve and causing him pain and weakness.
“I told him we would need to go in there and clean out that area to make room for the nerve,” Dr. Sayari said.
Don’t Fuse, Replace
Most orthopedic surgeons recommend a spinal fusion in such cases. But Dr. Sayari is subspecialized in motion preservation and minimally invasive techniques and a proponent of cervical disc arthroplasty, also known as cervical disc replacement.
During the procedure, the damaged disc and bone spurs are removed, and a new, artificial disc is implanted.
Dr. Sayari said not everyone is a candidate for cervical disc arthroplasty, but that he uses specific criteria to identify which patients would be good candidates. Generally, patients in their 30s to 60s without severe arthritis are able to have the procedure.
“The idea is to restore movement without pain,” said Dr. Sayari. “Most importantly, we want to restore function and maintain pain-free motion.”
On the Way to Pain-Free
While the discs are not custom-made, Dr. Sayari said there are various implant options. In fact, one company offers up to 27 sizes, allowing Dr. Sayari to select the one most tailored to each individual patient.
The surgery takes about an hour, and the patient can generally go home the same day or next day.
Robinson said he couldn’t wait for the surgery.
“They told me to be there at 6 a.m.; I got there at 5:30. I told them, ‘Let’s get started.’”
Robinson said he was naturally anxious as they were prepping him for surgery. “But everyone who came into the room – anesthesiologists, nurses, orderlies – they all helped put me at ease.”
As he was about to go under, Robinson said he said a prayer: “Dear Lord, guide this man’s hands. He is going to go into my throat. And there are a lot of important things in there.”
During the surgery, Robinson was put under general anesthesia. Dr. Sayari then made a small incision in the front of the neck so he could carefully clear a path to the affected disc. After the damaged disc is removed and the area cleaned, a new one is implanted.
“By the time I woke up from surgery, my arm pain was nearly all gone,” Robinson said. “I had only mild discomfort, and I was walking right away. I felt great and was relieved to feel my arm close to normal already.”
Robinson said he had some work to do after the surgery to make sure it healed properly. “And I did everything they told me to do or not do. Dr. Sayari said I was one of his best patients. After some rehabilitation, I have been able to get back to doing the things I enjoy and working pain-free.
“By May, he had cleared me to ride my bike again. That is one of my joys. Before the injury, I used to ride 12, sometimes 30 miles on the Forest Preserve path near my house before work.
“I’m back to being Gary Robinson again,” said Robinson.
Dr. Sayari will be presenting a community lecture at Silver Cross, Navigation and Robotics: Changing the Future of Neck and Back Surgery, a program on minimally invasive neck and spine surgery, from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the Silver Cross Conference Center, Pavilion A, Lower Level.
To register online, visit www.silvercross.org/classes-events.
