Young Caribbean girl receives complex surgery for rare spinal condition

Jan 8 2010

As part of an annual Orthopedic Surgery Mission to St. Vincent & the Grenadines, a young girl from St. Vincent in the Caribbean has received a rare in-country complex repair procedure for her spine after waiting several years on a waiting list to come to the US for treatment.

In a display of how the medical device industry and surgeons are willing to partner to help patients, no matter the economics, the International Hospital for Children (IHC) in Richmond, Virginia, and Richmond orthopedic surgeon Chester Sharps, M.D., along with a donation of technology from Boca Raton-based US Spine, arranged for the girl’s treatment as part of the surgical mission to provide children with medical procedures that would otherwise not be available to them.

This is the second time US Spine has teamed with IHC and Dr. Sharps for such a case as part of IHC’s Missions abroad.

The procedure took place at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, St. Vincent, which hosted the surgical mission for a week in November, during which time sixteen children received free surgical treatment.

Dr. Sharps, a Richmond-based surgeon, makes time to work regularly with IHC to perform particularly difficult cases in countries where medical science suitable to treat specific conditions is not available.

For the girl’s surgery, Dr. Sharps utilized the Preference® 2 Complex Spine System medical technology developed by US Spine. The system features state-of-the-art hooks, rods and screws designed to treat complex spinal conditions.

The complex surgery required Dr. Sharps to implant 17 titanium pedicle screws and 2 cobalt chrome rods into the patient’s spine to correct the deformity. The procedure took several hours to perform, but ended with significant reduction to the curvature and a more natural alignment – a life changing result for the patient. Dr. Sharps reports that the patient is doing well and that now her X-rays exhibit a normal shape and she no longer suffers from debilitating pain.  

Source: International Hospital for Children