A comprehensive range of spinal interventions can be undertaken at the Bristol Spinal Unit:
- Emergency spinal surgery for spinal trauma, cauda equina syndrome and tumours
- Intradural spinal micro-neurosurgery
- Diagnostic and therapeutic spinal nerve root blocks
- Spinal deformity surgery including Adult and Paediatric Scoliosis
- Degenerative Cervical and Lumbar deformity surgery
- Minimally invasive and micro-spinal surgery
- Non-instrumented and instrumented spinal surgery for degenerative conditions
- Percutaneous vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty
- Imaging guided spinal tumour biopsy service
- Spinal cord stimulation service for complex regional pain
- Congenital Spinal Pathology including paediatric spinal dysraphism surgery
- Spinal vascular microsurgery
- Inflammatory spinal conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis
At the Bristol Neurological & Spinal Unit, based at Southmead Hospital Bristol we provide a high quality service not just from the technical aspects of what can be achieved but also quality from the perspective of the patient.
The Orthopaedic Spine Surgeons are at the forefront of collecting data on clinical quality outcomes and Neurosurgery are developing tools for recording patient reported outcomes.
As part of our quality agenda the majority of our elective patients are seen at a pre-assessment clinic to identify any potential risks that could influence surgery. The pre-operative assessment clinic is run by specialist nurses under the leadership of surgical and anaesthetic consultants. The nurses help patients prepare for their operations, anticipated discharge home and also provide information regarding what to expect during the recovery period. This all contributes to a smoother in-patient experience for patients.
There are Consultants leading the Audit and Clinical Governance programmes within the Bristol Neurological and Spinal Unit. The specialist nurse practitioners conduct telephone follow up interviews for patients who have undergone non-complex “routine” spinal surgery. We have an active policy of monitoring for surgical site infection and this service is again delivered by our specialist nurse practitioners.
Both the Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Spinal Teams hold multi-disciplinary team meetings. This provides a forum for discussing patients with challenging spinal conditions as well as an opportunity to reflect on the service and plan for future developments, to present audits and to discuss research proposals.