Oriol Royo Obregón. Luxation and Listesis C6-C7

Published by ICSEB at 27 March, 2007

Date of intervention: March 2007

My name is Oriol Royo Obregon, I’m 21 years old and I live in Altafulla (Tarragona). I’ll tell you my experience which will hopefully be of help to you.

The 6th of August 2006, I had a traffic accident and was admitted to the Hospital of Mora d’ Ebre, where they performed different tests in which they found an abnormality in the spinal area (among other things). They thought that it was a fissure in the vertebra but as it wasn’t the case, they didn’t give it much importance.

Once I was discharged, I had strong pains in my back but I thought it was normal because of my accident. With time, the pain decreased but was still there so my family doctor recommended that I see an orthopedist.

The orthopedist had a magnetic resonance and various x-rays done and realized that something was wrong in the cervical area. This was out of his field so he recommended that I see a neurologist. With all of this, a little bit more than three months had gone by since my accident.

Lateral X-ray of the Cervical column with Luxation and Listhesis in C6-C7.

Post-operatory X-ray antero-posterior of the surgical reduction of the Luxation with Arthrodesis in C6-C7

Lateral post-operatory X-ray of the surgical reduction of the Luxation with Arthrodesis in C6-C7

Once I had found a neurologist, he did different tests to check my reflexes and feeling… he told me that in most probability, I would have to operate but that I should see a specialist, he mentioned two neurosurgeons, one of them was Dr. Royo.

The day that I went to see Dr. Royo, six months had already gone by since my accident. When he saw my different test results, he realized that I had to have surgery. I had a luxation, we quickly set up a day for the surgery.

On the 27th of February he operated, there were no complications, a few hours after leaving the operating room, I was totally fine, without any pain. Three days later I was discharged and I could go home, I rested for fifteen days and now I have already started leading a normal life but with tranquility and without strain. When a month has gone by I will be able to take off my surgical collar and if all goes as planned, the middle of April I will be discharged.

The purpose of this account is, in the first place, to give you advice, don’t delay if you find yourself in a situation like mine, I thought I was going as quickly as possible but between one thing and another, more than six months went by, which put me in a high risk situation and not only that, could’ve meant complications in the operation. Secondly, to give encouragement to those who have to have this kind surgery as there are no problems, it’s painless, there are no after-effects (except wearing a surgical collar and resting for a month, not much), thanks to the delicate work of the doctor, you can’t even see a scar…

Thanks to all the doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, assistants… who took care of me from the moment of my accident to the present day and especially to Dr. Royo for his speed, sincerity and professionalism.

Email: [email protected]