Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion - ALIF (Meng Huang, MD, Linda Le, MD, Philip Auyang, MD)

[@turkishexpress]

I had this surgery 18 months ago. It was a life changer. By week 6 I was in the gym doing simple stuff. By week 12 I could do compound lifts. By month 6 I was already using full weight in every exercise with no limitations.

[@nassine0904]

I just did this surgery , no more back pain but some soreness on the left leg, after one week walking slowly and taking 2 Tylenol every 12 jours. 🙏🏽so far so good.

[@gloriousgamers6172]

Update?

[@FijiWater-i2u]

Same here the last time I wasn't in pain was when I was 16 that's when I hurt my back I'm now 32 I feel brand new off course the normal pain but better then ever

[@nassine0904]

@@gloriousgamers6172😊up to now feeling great , no more pain , still some tingling on left leg.

[@babyyoda8195]

you guys make ALIF exposure look so easy. I've spent hours getting exposure before.

[@kevinhines9440]

I have this surgery coming up in less than 2 weeks. Thank you for a great video to explain what will be expected!

[@carlamathis9611]

I will have this surgery in 4 days. This video and the comments are helpful.

[@bigblue3568]

howd it go?

[@letabranch7459]

Beautiful stitch work!

[@vzeller]

Hey Doctor! I know an ALIF only gets about 90 percent of the disc because of the frontal approach. What happens to that remaining bit of disc? Can't it still be compressed on the nerve? Will it eventually erode/absorb?

[@KBradAdams]

I had this mid April 2023 and have a bad burning pulling pain on my lower left ab and curious if this is normal. If I walk more than a quarter mile it starts hurting and I have to stop. I am hoping just from moving stuff around in there but worried I have a hernia now. Is that a common pain?

[@HederaHelix1234]

Did you ask the Doctor if this ain was normal? Did they give you a recovery rate or time frame? Maybe your body is still healing. The surgery involves ripping through abdominal tissue. Perhaps there is scar tissue involved. Defininately follow up with the surgeon. Did your back pain go away?

[@KBradAdams]

@@HederaHelix1234 I saw my vascular surgeon at 6 months and he said it could be a trapped nerve but thought PT was the best route and did not do an ultra sound which my Back Surgeon thought was strange. Anyway I am going to just keep doing my PT and see if it gets better. What was strange was I noticed some small spots on my xray and I asked my surgeon about them, he said that they are some types of clips or staples the Vascular surgeon used on blood vessels or something? I had no idea they were using those or why and haven't seen a video yet with someone doing an ALIF using them.

[@angele2217]

I have gotten the surgery done two weeks ago I am in recovery. First week was hell. Second week is a lot better although I seem to have some sort of nerve damage on my left tummy where they open me up I am receiving numbness, sharp, tingling sensations that go to my top side area all the way to my tummy incision they told me it would go away after a couple of weeks but I still feel the numbness. I can’t even feel my fingers running through that area, although this might be a little annoying, I seem to feel a lot better with my pain only time will tell when I am able to do physical therapy and really see if the surgery has helped me or not. This is my second spinal fusion I have done this far.

[@jear605]

Hola me operaron de lo mismo y tengo exactamente los síntomas que describes, el entumecimiento en en el abdomen cuanto te duró ???

[@its_ari5458]

Hello friend how you doing now

[@TeknoTronik]

​@@jear605que tal te va la vida ?

[@darwinjames9262]

Excellent consolidation!

[@tashashouse]

Where were the organs? Didn't seem to be much care to avoid the spinal cord. I'm confused.

[@vzeller]

This is the front. There is no contact with the spinal cord in an ALIF. They go in through your abdomen.

[@joydee794]

I have no idea what went wrong during my 2 level fusion . I was told going through the front would be easier. I woke up afterwards with 3 incision , my back , my stomach and my left side of tummy. Now suffer severe pain , trouble walking due to pain that's just gotten worse 2 years later. Nerve damage left side of stomach , low back area , entire left leg. I was told about a year later after surgery , the increase pain , numbness, nerve damage etc is because of scar tissue pressing on nerves. I feel chained to my apt , my room and my bed cos of the pain and mobility issues. I can walk but balance is bad and pain is severe. I only get out to see my pain management Dr every 3 months and the trip is torture. I miss my kids and grandkids so much that I have gone to dinner twice in the past few months but its pure torture by the time I get home I'm in tears and can't roll over in bed or get up without help. Takes a week to get pain levels down enough to just roll over without help , severe pain and that's even with a strong pain killer on board. The last one fathers day has left me feeling hopeless , more depressed an very emotional .. No clue where to go from here. My daughter wants me to see her husbands spine surgeon but the thought of more surgeries terrifies me and so does spending the rest of my life like this. I was in much better shape prior to the back 2 back double fusion. Any advice would be appreciated. I also have other medical conditions that's came up since surgery that needs to be checked but due to pain of going to the Dr , week of getting over it keeps me from seeing my family Dr for the medical condition that I thought was getting better but hurting in left side of tummy where a lump showed up appears to be increasing . Not sure how much more I can take to be honest. Daily prayers and meditation keeps me from giving up completely and the love I have for my precious grandbabies , I miss them so. i rarely get family time in my condition and after fathers day not sure i can go through this again. Still trying to get over one night of family time.. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@cooldrummerx7]

Have you tried any interventional pain injections? A spinal cord stimulator my be a good option too

[@georgededomenico5402]

What hospital? Didn’t they tell you exactly what happened and what can be done to fix this?

[@Brendamc629]

I don’t know you but I’m heartbroken for you and hope by now you’ve pain has gone or at the very least subsided

[@Haywoodjablomie100]

How are you now?

[@naomikunkel4350]

as a kid this is incredible to watch i have no idea what they are doing but it is very impressive

[@talibjohnafzali8828]

Why you do this procedure anteriorly

[@maxbelski]

L5S1 is the only disk that allows to have anterior approach. If done right, you don't cut through the muscles, like you would coming from behind. Also, theoretically you have much better access to the disk itself and you don't have to maneuver around nerves, like you would coming from the back. Apparently, it's easier recovery as well.

[@leesampier6962]

I will be doing this survey later this year from a 32 yo Army injury. I’m very optimistic and Dr. Huang is my neurosurgeon (2nd narrator).

[@cyriebailey]

What is the self retaining retractor called that you have?

[@hairshorts6630]

Waiting to have mine done,I’m not looking forward to it.

[@its_ari5458]

Hello friend how you doing now?

[@wendygibson730]

Wonderful thank you

[@mandalorian4620]

How is this a "cardiovascular procedure"?

[@thomasloh7551]

There are multiple large blood vessels that lie directly in front of the spine that need to be managed in order to facilitate exposure. Depending on the literature you read, the vascular injury rate during exposure/instrumentation is about 2-3% making having a vascular surgeon immediately available or performing the exposure advantageous.

[@mandalorian4620]

@@thomasloh7551 Ok, got it

[@georgewashington687]

@@thomasloh7551 Do some spine surgeons do this procedure without the assistance of a vascular surgeon? Would an experienced vascular surgeon consider this a routine, uncomplicated procedure to expose the vertebrae for the spine surgeon?

[@adyo92]

@@georgewashington687 from what I’ve seen at my hospital, there’s always a vascular surgeon scrubbed in. So it’ll be two surgeons(ortho/neuro and vascular surgeon) and the scrub tech performing the surgery

[@carolynnr937]

Watching

[@MrSolila]

I just did this surgery 😭

[@jeanpichardo87]

How it went?

[@jeanholt9633]

How you doing? I am 4 years out from this.

[@haiyo4333]

@@jeanholt9633 hey, I wanna know how you are going now. Is it really solves the problems you have before? I'm about to do this surgery in 3 days.. I'd be so thankful if you could describe yours 🙏

[@KBradAdams]

How is your back now Soso?

[@oldben1800]

jesus this surgery looks primitive as hell to perform....so much respect to these doctors

[@hinatauzumaki641]

My mother in law is getting that 😨🫳🏽

[@katherinequintero8782]

God bless her. Hope she's good