- #Cerebrospinal fluid leak doctor in san francisco bay area skin#
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“I still have pain, and I’m fearful of another back surgery in my future,” said the Concord resident and media saleswoman.
Sunny Martinez, 41, who has had two back surgeries after being diagnosed with a disk degenerative disease, thinks the coach spoke too soon about avoiding back surgery. Will Kerr follow his own advice and avoid back surgery at all cost?
If that doesn’t work, he said, another surgery would be the next option.
#Cerebrospinal fluid leak doctor in san francisco bay area skin#
However, an “occult dural tear’’ only becomes apparent after the surgery, when a patient experiences symptoms including headaches and dizziness, caused by the change in pressure around the spinal cord and brain.ĭoctors recommend a number of solutions: a trial period of bed rest, or an attempt to “bolster” the wound so it increases pressure outside the skin, and hopefully helps the wound to seal over.Īnother option, said Metz, is a drain inserted through the skin that diverts the cerebrospinal fluid, decreasing the pressure inside the dura. If the dura is nicked during surgery, the surgeon would usually notice the clear fluid leaking, said Metz, and repair the tear with a suture. “We are basically working around that balloon to remove the bulging part of the disk.” “The dura is very, very thin - think of the dura like a balloon holding spinal fluid and nerve roots,” Metz said. But they also can happen after surgery, because areas of the removed bone may still have sharp edges. In fact, he said, it’s happened to most surgeons. Metz said a dural tear can occur inadvertently during surgery when a surgeon using a bone removal tool accidentally nicks the dura. Kerr has tried just about everything over the last year and a half for relief, including medicine, yoga, meditation, exercise and even marijuana. He continues to consult with his doctors, hoping for some improvement.
#Cerebrospinal fluid leak doctor in san francisco bay area series#
The coach missed almost half of the Warriors’ record-setting 2015-16 regular season and the pain is still so bad that he stepped aside after Game 2 of Warriors’ first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers. Kerr’s original surgery, on July 28, 2015, to repair a ruptured disk ran into a complication at some point during or after the surgery when the membrane was accidentally nicked. Kim doesn’t know the details of Kerr’s case, but said it sounds like the coach may have a “persistent spinal leak,’’ something Kim has studied and written about over the years and says are more common than people realize. Kee Kim, chief of spinal neurosurgery at UC Davis and co-director of the school’s Spine Center. “But most patients do well after surgery.’’ “I can understand where he is coming from - he personally had a very bad experience,’’ said Dr. Yet many surgeons and patients involved with these procedures disagree with Kerr.
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