Surgeons at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne (SVPHM) have successfully performed the world’s first awake prone lateral fusion surgery. The procedure involved delivering lumbar spine fusion while the patient was lying on their stomach (prone) – and completely awake!

Not all patients who experience spinal ailments are deemed medically fit for a general anaesthetic, and, as a result, some are unable to safely access spinal surgery and instead live in pain.  

SVPHM Neurosurgeon Mr Yi Yuen ‘Ian’ Wang and Anaesthetist Dr Jeremy Wong saw the need to make spinal surgery to be accessible to these patients – who are commonly older, frail or experiencing other comorbidities – and awake lumbar spinal surgery is making this happen. 

Together, they perform highly specialised spinal surgeries, including microdiscectomies, laminectomies and even selected spinal fusions, where the patient has a spinal block, and pain relief, instead of a general anaesthetic.

Mr Wang and Dr Wong were joined in the operating theatre by a dedicated team of nurses and theatre staff.

Channel 7 News attended the milestone occasion – see the news coverage here: Melbourne surgeons perform world first spinal operation | 7NEWS

The patient, Keith, 91, remained awake throughout the procedure, even listening to his choice of music – modern jazz – while the surgery took place.

Keith had been seeing Dr Wang for almost a year, using injections and other possible interventions to try and relieve his pain and renew his quality of life.

As a result of this surgery, Keith was moving without pain as soon as one day after the procedure.

While awake spinal surgery has been occurring in the United States for longer period, it’s accessed by only 2.3% of patients. Since performing their first awake spinal surgery case in 2020, Mr Wang and Dr Wong have seen its value, now providing an option to patients who have previously been told “no” to surgery, or who have had to travel internationally to relieve spinal pain.

SVPHM is the only Victorian hospital offering awake spinal surgery, with Mr Wang and Dr Wong looking at each case individually and offering the surgery to patients unsuitable for surgery with general anaesthetic.