Turel’s technique

Suffering crippling pain in his back 75-year-old German industrialist Johen Ludwig was condemned to live with his condition by doctors in his native land. Failing to diagnose that for the past four years Ludwig had been suffering from Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (LSS), when the spinal canal becomes narrow and compresses the nerves, the doctors dosed him with strong injections that made him drowsy without alleviating the pain, reported Mumbai Mirror (MM) on August 9, 2010. There were medical complications such as a blocked artery in his leg which necessitated a balloon angio­plasty. Surgery was ruled out because of the multiple risks involved which could even render the patient paralyzed. Apart from the fact that at 90 kg he bordered on obesity, Ludwig has diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure, coronary insufficiency and had undergone prostate surgery.

Dr Keki Turel: pioneering procedure

An active man who travels abroad for over 200 days in a year, the industrialist was crushed. But not one to give up easily, he chose to consult India’s leading neurosurgeon Dr Keki Turel. After putting Ludwig through a battery of tests Turel decided to operate, using an innovative technique called Microsurgical Internal Decompression of Spinal Stenosis, which he had practically pioneered and refined, MM mentions. Ludwig was admitted to Bombay Hospital in early August, underwent an eight-hour surgery and a week later was back on his feet with the pain having subsided considerably.

Though the traditional cure for LSS is laminectomy in which a portion of the patient’s lamina (the two small bones that make up a vertebra) is removed, Turel used a new method which involves widening of the space between the lamina by skillfully chiseling and drilling the sides, MM noted. By thus widening the space for the spinal canal, the blocked and compressed nerves are able to breathe. "You don’t need to make incisions all over or break open the spine,” Turel explained, which helps in early recuperation.

The doctor acknowledges that Ludwig’s zest for life and will power played no mean part in his remarkable recovery. "Age was never a factor for him. It is only due to his positivity that he has been able to travel so much despite having LSS all these years.”