Titanium cage

[jbailey]

During the surgery, the surgeons replaced two vertebrae with titanium cages. I hadn't a clue what that was, and they didn't have one handy to show me. I've managed to find a picture of one on the Internet, though:

http://www.medscape.com/content/2003/00/46/53/465370/art-nf465370.fig1.jpg

Cool, eh? On the next visit I'm going to ask them how they get the spinal cord to go through that, since I don't see any gaps to slide it through in the picture.

In other news, I can finally lift my laptop now, so chatting with people on jaber can be done at a reasonable speed without trashing by wrists from typing on the blackberry. Yay!

Also, Leif is definitely walking now. Craziness. I'll try to get some video soon.

Comments

[gubydal.livejournal.com]

Wow. Now I'm wondering how they got the spinal cord in there too. It really doesn't look like they hinge anywhere to allow that to happen.

Here's how it's done

[tycheent.livejournal.com]

It took a bit of research and asking my wife some questions, but here's how it's done. Pretend that you are looking down at a vertebra with the back facing away from you. You would see a cylindrical portion with what might almost look like hound-dog ears pointing in your general direction. The cylindrical section has a grove in it. That's where the spinal chord goes. The titanium cage is used to replace where the cylindrical section is.

Hope this is understandable, and helps.

[motherinlawtree.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the metal replaces the body of the vertebra. The bodies of the vertebrae are stacked on top of each other to make a post up the middle of the body. Behind this post is the spinal cord, surrounded by encircling arms reaching back from each vertebral body. Where the hands clasp together is the spine of the vertebra, which is what you feel when you press on the middle of someone's back. So the layers go, skin, spines, spinal cord, and vertebral bodies.