Christina suffered a severe brachial plexus injury in a motorcycle accident. As a result, severe, debilitating pain dominated her life for six years. 约翰霍普金斯大学的背根进入区(DREZ)手术给了她安慰和希望.

“You literally just fall to your knees.”

No one could see the pain. 她周围没有人能理解为什么克里斯蒂娜会周期性地崩溃, unable to move or think — barely able to catch her breath.

克里斯蒂娜的一些损失更为明显:2015年在佛罗里达州发生的一场摩托车事故夺走了她的手臂, her leg and nearly her life.

But even harder to bear than the amputations was the nerve pain.

她的左臂被截肢后，就开始有灼烧和压碎的感觉. 当她在医院醒来时，药物的阴霾开始消散, she realized she could still feel the missing arm and hand, and both were in agony.

“I could feel it. 感觉就像有人把我的胳膊放在篝火上烤一样，”克里斯蒂娜说.

克里斯蒂娜说，在接下来的六年里，痛苦一直挥之不去. The baseline pain, bad enough as it was, 每隔几个小时就会有突然的浪涌，把她撞倒在地.

克里斯蒂娜说:“无论你在哪里，在公共场合还是在任何地方，你都会摔倒在地。. “And everyone wants to try to grab you and help you. But there’s nothing they can do. You literally just fall to your knees.”

Pain That's Difficult to Control

The impact of the motorcycle accident resulted in a severe brachial plexus injury. When Christina was thrown from the bike, she landed on her shoulder. 为她的手臂和手提供感觉和运动的神经从颈部脊髓的起源中被撕裂. 脊髓中正常的痛觉通路受到了严重的破坏，神经向她的大脑发出了痛苦的疼痛信号, continual spasms.

This kind of nerve pain defies most treatments. Even after she’d recovered from the amputation of her arm and leg, Christina still couldn’t work, play or do anything except hurt. 从注射肉毒杆菌毒素和针灸到最强效的麻醉止痛药, Christina tried a range of therapies, but nothing eased the pain.

她说:“多年来，我找过一些非常好的疼痛治疗医生，我很同情他们。. “They tried their hardest, and they knew what I was going through. They could see it in my eyes. 当我在他们办公室的时候，他们看到了我的痛感.”

Christina was also aware of the impact on her family. “My family’s been tormented by this, too. They would cry; they sob; they pray. Pain like this has ruined a lot of lives. You feel like a burden.”

她咨询的医生最后建议她尝试脊髓手术——这是最后的办法. At first, Christina’s insurance company balked. 但贝尔兹伯格与他们交谈，并帮助说服他们支付他心目中的治疗费用.

DREZ Procedure: The Last-Resort Treatment That Worked

Belzberg is one of only a few neurosurgeons skilled in performing a dorsal root entry zone, or DREZ, procedure 这是像克里斯蒂娜这样臂丛神经损伤患者的最后希望.

DREZ手术背后的概念是通过制造损伤，使脊髓中的特定纤维沉默，从而使神经到大脑的疼痛信号通路失效. 外科医生使用手术显微镜仔细分离被撕裂的神经根损伤的脊髓的精确区域, 然后在脊髓受伤的神经纤维上做60-120个精确的损伤, using laser, radio waves, ultrasound or microsurgery.

Belzberg says, “A successful DREZ lesioning procedure can mean significant, long-term reduction in pain.”

“This was a very high-risk operation in Christina’s case,” says Belzberg. “克里斯蒂娜明白，她很有可能失去(剩下的)那条腿的某些功能, due to continuing problems with her spinal cord. But she still wanted to go through with the procedure.”

“Mind-blowingly happy”

Christina recalls, “我知道手术后他们问我的第一件事就是我的左肩是否还疼. I said no. That was the best feeling: to be able to answer no.

“Right then and there, I knew I was going to have a life again. 这是世界上最美好的感觉，尽管我刚刚做完一个非常艰难的手术. I was just mind-blowingly happy.”

Now that the brachial plexus injury pain is addressed, Christina can feel all the other changes her body has gone through. 她正在从DREZ手术中恢复，并注意到一些与截肢有关的感觉.

“在过去的六年里，我没有感觉到任何其他的疼痛，因为臂丛疼痛占据了我的身体,” she says.

但她指出，她现在所经历的不适与臂丛疼痛完全不同:它是可控的，而且会随着时间的推移而改善. And that, she can tolerate.

DREZ Procedure: “It saved my life.”

Looking toward the next stage in her new life, 克里斯蒂娜说，她迫不及待地想回到男友和家人身边. 她期待着与她心爱的狗狗团聚，和它们依偎在一起. 她想回去工作，和姐姐和姐夫一起去教堂，庆祝他们的祈祷得到了回应.

克里斯蒂娜说:“接受DREZ手术是值得的，因为手术会带来暂时的不适. It's worth everything to me, to anyone in my condition. 我只是想让其他和我一样受伤的人知道这个手术是存在的，它可以拯救生命，也一定会拯救生命.”

Regarding the procedure as life-saving is not an exaggeration for Christina. 她承认，在手术前，她非常怀疑自己能否继续这样的生活.

“现在，我不用担心会伤妈妈的心，因为我的痛苦已经得到了控制. It’s … it’s amazing. The DREZ procedure changed my life. It saved my life.”

Researching Ways to Control, Prevent and Eliminate Pain

The Neurosurgery Pain Research Institute at Johns Hopkins, where pain scientist Michael Caterina, neurosurgeon Allan Belzberg and their teams collaborate, 是通过一笔慷慨的捐款来增进对疼痛的了解并开发治疗疼痛的新方法的吗.

类似的慈善支持帮助贝尔兹伯格和他的团队研究进一步改进DREZ技术的方法. “我们现在可以修改我们进行这项手术的方式，使其更好、更安全, so more effective and safer with lower risk of complications,” Belzberg says.

Some of those new approaches were used in Christina’s DREZ operation. “Dr. 卡特琳娜和我花了很多时间研究神经损伤是如何导致疼痛的，并试图更好地理解它,” says Belzberg.

“我们做手术的方式似乎帮助了克里斯蒂娜. 事实上，我们能够摆脱她的痛苦部分是由于我们多年来所做的研究.”

Christina agrees. “This is the happiest I have been in six years. I’m a real person again, not a ‛pain person.’

“There’s so much to learn. I want more surgeons to be able to learn how to do DREZ surgery. I want more people to be helped like I was.”

Learn more about Dorsal Root Entry Zone.