CINCINNATI(WKRC) — The suspected shooter of the United Healthcare CEO reportedly suffered from spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition often seen in younger individuals, CBS News reported. This condition occurs when a bone in the spine slips out of alignment and presses on the vertebra beneath it.
Dr. Ben Valley, an OrthoCincy spine specialist, explained, “In younger people, it tends to be from what’s called a PARS fracture, which can happen when you are young and going through puberty. It’s basically a stress fracture in the back of the spine, and over time you lose the hold of the back of the spine and it starts to slowly slip forward.”
Surgery is typically the best solution if conservative therapies fail, Dr. Valley said. “Quite often with a fusion of two or more vertebrae so they heal into a single bone,” he noted, adding that there is a gray area in treatment.
“The other minutiae of a fusion of adding an inter-body cage in the front, and there are so many different ways to add an inter-body in the cage,” Dr. Valley said. “We can go from the front, through the oblique from the side, from the back, and that’s where you get into the gray area, with what’s the best surgery for that. How do you get an ideal fusion, and I think if you ask every surgeon the same question, you’ll probably get a lot of different answers.”
Despite the complexities, Dr. Valley mentioned that this combination fusion has one of the lowest revision rates.
