NEW ORLEANS — Every year, there are two million new cases of a condition that causes excruciating back and leg pain.
It's called spinal stenosis, but now there is a minimally-invasive procedure that is giving most patients instant relief.
Linda Bienvenu can't believe she has her life back. Her passion for sewing and cooking, even walking, had become almost impossible.
"Couldn't get out the bed. Terrible pains. Went to all kind of doctors trying to get help," she sighs, thinking about the 10 years of pain.
And the excruciating pain made it especially hard to live in New Orleans this time of year.
"I used to like to go to the parades, you know, and you got to walk too far to get a spot. I said, 'Forget it, I'm not going,'" she laughed.
Linda was suffering from one of the most common problems in seniors called spinal stenosis. The area in back of the spine where the bundle of nerves passes through, narrows and compresses the nerves.
"One hundred percent of us are going to have that problem if we live long enough. Time and gravity affects all of us," said Dr. Stephen Rynick, an Interventional Pain Management Specialist at the Culicchia Neurological Clinic.
Regular steroid epidural injections were not working, so Linda turned to interventional pain management specialist Dr. Stephen Rynick for the latest treatment. Through a small incision, under sedation and local anesthesia, Dr. Rynick implanted the Superion Vertiflex, a small titanium device that holds those bumpy back bones called the spinous processes, open, relieving the pressure on the nerves. The procedure takes less than a half hour and relief is immediate. He even performed it on his wife.
"We got home from the procedure and she was telling me how light her leg felt. she couldn't believe it," Dr. Rynick remembers.
"In fact, when I came to the office to get checked, poor Dr. Rynick didn't know what was happening, and I jumped up and grabbed him and told him, 'Oh, thank you very much!'" said Bienvenu.
She is now ready to go to the Mardi Gras parades and yell, 'Throw me something mister.'
Right now, just Medicare and Medicare advantage are covering this procedure.
Culicchia Neurological Clinic: