A lady presented with C5/6 and C6/7 disc degeneration and disc protrusions. She had suffered with pain radiating from the neck through the left arm to the index and middle finger since December 2011 following a fall off her bicycle. She would wake with numbness of the lips and left side of the face. In June 2012 she developed throbbing pain in the neck, deeply in to the shoulder and elbow, upper chest and down her back with the addition of numbness in the index and middle finger.
The symptoms failed to resolve with Muscle Balance Physiotherapy, medication and Chronic Pain Management.
Serial MRI scans showed a large C6/7 left disc protrusion (bulge) extending in to the left exit door way (foramen) for the nerve and displacing this therein and a smaller disc protrusion at C5/6 that contained a High Intensity Zone.
At C6/7 an endoscopic targeted manual removal of the protrusion was performed together with a laser Annuloplasty to shrink the redundant posterior wall bulge.
Gelstix was inserted in to the C5/6 disc.
The procedure was performed under sedation and circulating pain control and the 4mm wound closed with a single fine stitch.
Sensation in the fingers recovered on the operating table together with alleviation of the remainder of her symptoms.
The patient travelled home then next morning after a good nights rest.
The purpose of the Gelstix insertion was to reduce the production of painful inflammatory products from the degenerating C5/6 disc and to inhibit further degeneration within this disc.
