CloakNNNdagger
Hall of Fame
Only one thing left to do. Gotta get JJ a robot spinal column. We'll probably get him back by week 12 if he can jump enough boxes to put our team's collective minds to rest.
I'm only partially joking here. At some point (Doc) will something like this (or something beyond this) be a practical replacement for athletes with back injuries?
I brought this technique up in this previous post:
As my post following his extensive bilateral sports hernia and back surgeries have reflected, I have been very guarded about his future.........not only as Superman, but as a football player. If this is indeed true, this is exactly what I was concerned about, after his cumulative major core injuries. The microdiscectomy procedure removes the initially damaged portion of a disk. Microdiscectomies are found to fail, many times after a period of relief, and back and nerve compression problems continue or return in ~25% of cases and the surgery must be repeated. The next option usually considered (if there is enough disk material that can be retained) is another microdiscectomy, which again can be therapeutic to variable extent and variable amount of time. This simply is because it has lost some of its water content which causes decreased shock absorption with uneven pressure on the compromised disk. This then tends to lead to continued structural changes and instability. ............and this is the case in an accountant or a lawyer. Now address an NFL lineman who is very tall, heavy and continually requires bending, torquing and twisting of the body against resistance, and you can imagine the additional stress the back (especially the lower back) and their disks will endure. If the second microdiscectomy fails, typically the next option given is a removal of the disc with insertion of a prosthetic disk or with a vertebral fusion.............both of these extremely long recoveries........and very likely career ending. I hope that this is not the fate of one of the NFL's greatest players.
One last thought. This could be another disk level that Watt is dealing with. When one level is compromised, it is all too common for an adjacent level to be affected concomitantly or in the future.
The points that are important when considering this technique for lumbar disc replacement are the following:
It requires a surgical approach through the abdomen, with reported complications involving injury to the major blood vessels that bring blood to and from the legs with significant bleeding, injury to the tubes which move urine from the kidneys to the bladder (ureters), and injury to the small or large intestines. In males, ~5% impotence has been reported. Migration or displacement of the metal endplates or the central plastic core can occur with return to activity. The implant can fracture the vertebra upon insertion or the vertebra can fracture in the postoperative return to activity period. There is sparse study of these implants in athletes, and most are in athletes such as swimmers, runners and cyclists.......very few parajumpers, snowboarders, etc. There are very few examples of football players available, and these are mostly in cases of cervical discs (compared to lumbar) which are much less exposed to severe repeated traumas, especially extreme compressive trauma. One interesting finding in one of the studies is that the success was strongly correlated to the functional level that the athlete experienced in the period just preceding the need for the surgery............the more dysfunctional the athlete was at the time of the surgery, the lesser the return of level of functionality was experienced.