Vail physician performs first awake spine surgery in Nepal
Members of Vail Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery share skills in Kathmandu
Dr. Ernest Braxton/Courtesy photo
Dr. Ernest Braxton of Vail Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery travels extensively to talk about different surgery techniques at conferences around the world — but a recent trip was a little different. In December, Dr. Braxton trekked over to Nepal with his team to not only share knowledge but also provide services in operating rooms.
“A neurosurgery colleague of mine, Dr. Richard Wohns of Seattle, has been going to Nepal for the past 10 years with the Nepal Spine Foundation and last year he recruited me to come along with him,” Braxton said. Wohns is the founder of the Nepal Spine Foundation whose mission is education and research through its deep collaboration with the Department of Neurosurgery at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Wohns has been both a physician and climber during expeditions on Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest.
Dr. Braxton joined what is called Spine Week where visiting surgeons help teach residents and junior faculty.
Spine Week started with a cadaver lab focused on anterior fusion surgery. The scheduled cases for the week were then divided up and assigned to each surgeon and team. Each morning thereafter started with an academic session in the neurosurgery conference room in the hospital. These academic sessions were presented by the traveling surgeons for the residents. They included topics such as spine fusions and different approaches, the different devices available currently for artificial disc replacements, specific fracture patterns and treatment options. Morning rounds were either completed before or after the academic session and then the teams were in the operating room for the day with their assigned cases.
“The idea was that we weren’t trying to do as many surgeries as we could during the week, what we wanted to do was take a lot of time to teach. My presentation was regarding awake spine surgery, there were other presentations on artificial discs, different types of spine fusions and cutting-edge techniques,” Braxton said.
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Braxton brought along a few team members from Vail. His two physician assistants at Vail Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery, Holley Spears, PA-C, and Laura Humen, PA-C, along with Bri Snyder, a nurse at Vail Health, and expert equipment representative, Matthew Merritt.
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“I was really grateful for the opportunity to go to Nepal and I found that they were really high quality surgeons,” Braxton said. “I have new respect for what they are able to do. It did give me a new perspective and we hope to go back again in the future.”
