Wann eine Operation wirklich helfen kann

Vier von fünf Erwachsenen haben Rückenschmerzen.
Oft wird Patienten zu einer OP geraten, um wieder schmerzfrei zu sein. 

Neurochirurg Dr. Armin Helmbrecht über Techniken und Methoden.

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Quelle: TZ

Als Experte für minimalinvasive Rücken-OPs ist Dr. Michael Schubert weltweit gefragt. So ist der Münchner Top-Mediziner gerade aus New York zurückgekommen, wo er zu den knapp zwanzig international renommierten Dozenten gehörte, die auf dem Kongress „Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and Navigation“ im Weill Comell Medical College andere Chirurgen weitergebildet hat.

Auf dem Programm stand dabei auch eine fundierte Diskussion über die Fortschritte der minimalinvasiven Chirurgie sowie über neue bildgebende Verfahren, die unter anderem von Dr. Schubert bei dessen OPs eingesetzt werden.

The popular English freeskier Warren Smith took a trip to Munich last week. The reason for this was not a short break or a performance-show, but a disc surgery at one of the world's leading spine surgeons in endoscopic surgical techniques - Dr. Michael Schubert from the Munich Apex Spine Center.

The diagnosis of a "large lumbar disc prolapse" is twice as bad for a professional athlete like Warren Smith (39): not only activities in private life, but also his professional duties can be significantly affected.

The internationally acclaimed instructor and one of the best professional off-piste skiers traveled to Munich to the Apex Spine Center the day before his birthday, to go under the knife of Dr. Michael Schubert. The Munich doctor successfully removed endoscopically the slipped disc from the spinal canal of the ski star under local anesthesia and concomitant sedation. After only one night hospital stay, Smith could return home on his birthday. For two weeks, the professional athlete will have to carry a supportive brace, within six weeks he will be able to race down the slopes again.

Warren Smith confided his health to the experienced hands of Dr. Schubert, who carries out the gentlest disc surgery in the world at the Munich Apex Spine Center. The intervention can be done without general anesthesia. "Thanks to this unique surgical method, a herniated disc in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine can be treated as gently and at such a low risk as never before," says spine surgeon Dr. Michael Schubert. Instead of an open procedure through a five-to eight-inch long cut, for the new procedure only a very small incision for a 2.5 mm working channel will do. The slipped disc material is removed within 30 to 45 minutes with minute instruments. The tools that are necessary for this kind of intervention have been developed by the spine specialist himself.

Warren Smith is not the first professional athlete who was treated by Dr. Schubert in this way. The German rowing world champion Matthias Schömann-Finck suffered from a severe lumbar herniated disc in 2010. All conservative treatments failed, a rehab did not help – he found relief only when he lay on the operating table of Dr. Schubert. How fit he is again, became obvious when the athlete together with his teammates made it up to the World Cup semifinals in the coxless four this year in Bled, Slovenia.

Dr. Schubert has carried out this minimally invasive surgery successfully in more than 5000 patients. As complicated postsurgical care, extended hospital stays and long recovery times can be avoided with this method, the overall treatment costs are also much lower than for conventional disc surgery.

Franziska Kremtz

Photo: Warren Smith (left) was able to leave the Munich APEX SPINE Center already one day after his disc surgery by Dr. Michael Schubert (right). (Source: Warren Smith, Apex Spine Center)

Lufthansa German Airlines offers a comprehensive global route network linking Munich with major cities around the world.  As the mobility partner for patients undergoing medical procedures with the APEX SPINE CENTER, Lufthansa offers special prices and flexible conditions in First, Business and Economy Class to patients and their travel companions.

This award was established to honor special high-earning surgeons in the field of endoscopic spinal surgery.

Was presented the award to two spinal surgeons with years of experience, including Dr. Michael Schubert. Criteria for the granting of the award are endoscopic surgery including the long-standing practice.