Laminectomy is my new word for 2012. I'd never heard of it before until I saw it written on the Inpatient Surgical Package given to me by my neurosurgeon. In the space for "Surgical Procedure" was written the words "Thoracic Laminectomy for Tumour".
Thoracic ... okay, I remember that from first year anatomy (a looooong time ago). That'd be the middle part of the spine.
Tumour ... okay, we talked about that. It has since been replaced by the word "growth" when medical people are talking to us non-medical folks about strange things growing in our bodies.
Laminectomy. ... what the heck is that!
Hello Google ! When I typed in "laminectomy for tumour", Google returned medical journals, hospital sites, research papers, and talk boards where the only people posting were the worst case scenario. Yipes! I spent days researching, and after talking to my doctor, I think I have a handle on what it is.
Vertebrae look like this (this one is lumbar, but close enough).
The Spinous Process is the bony part you feel when you run your hand down your back. The gap between the Pedicles is where the spinal cord runs through your vertebrae. Hmmm .. somehow the surgeon needs to get from my back, into my spinal cord. Seems to be a lot of armour in the way! Thus the word-for-the-year ... Laminectomy. Complete laminectomy involves cutting both Laminae, and bye bye Spinous Process. For 5 vertebrae. Nice. An alternate, where possible, is to leave the Spinous Process and just take out one Laminae on each vertebrae, but I won't know what he had to do until the surgery is over. Herm the Worm is a pretty fat guy. (Update: my neurosurgeon did a full laminectomy and removed the spinal process of 6 vertebrae to remove Herm the Worm).
I asked the neurosurgeon if he pins or fuses the bone back in and he said no. Well, since I find the whole thing fascinating (when I forget that we're talking about ME), and the anatomy pretty cool, and if the bony pieces are going to be thrown out ... can I have them?
"NO".
Again, I am an alien.
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