Surgeon Uses Novel techniques to Treat Severely Deformed Spines
Lawrence G. Lenke, MD, a Washington University orthopedic surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is pioneering a new surgical approach to treat people with severe spinal deformities.
Traditionally, surgeons perform vertebral column resections to correct severely deformed spines. This requires at least two surgeries: one working through a side incision, and another working through a back incision. But Lenke works through a single back incision on the spine to perform the entire correction, usually in a single operation.
Lenke, one of only a handful of surgeons using the posterior approach, treats patients from all over the United States and other countries. He also teaches the procedure to surgeons from
all over the world.