Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995                   TAG: 9506060131
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

REEVE DOCTOR SAYS OPERATION A SUCCESS

University of Virginia Medical Center surgeon Dr. John Jane said the operation was a success.

``Everything went well,'' Jane said at a news conference. ``We did the fusion we anticipated.'' The operation had been expected to last up to five hours, but it took six.

``It was a little more complicated just to get everything absolutely, exactly right,'' Jane said. ``The vertebrae were so fragmented.''

Surgeons used 11 titanium wires to tie together Reeve's upper two vertebrae. They also connected the first vertebra to the base of the skull with a spring. Bone shavings from Reeve's hip were grafted between the first and second vertebrae.

Doctors say the operation will prevent bone shards from further damaging the 42-year-old actor's injured spinal cord but will do nothing to help him regain the ability to move or breathe on his own.

Reeve was paralyzed May 27 in an equestrian jumping accident in Culpeper.

Jane said it could be weeks or months before the full extent of damage to Reeve's spinal cord is known. Jane said Reeve has some feeling in his neck and chest, indicating his spinal cord was not severed. However, he said it was impossible to say how much mobility Reeve can hope to achieve.

The surgery will allow doctors to gradually help Reeve sit up in bed, Jane said. He said they would begin by raising Reeve's head by about 10 degrees.

Reeve probably will have to wear a neck collar for about a week, the surgeon said. He said the fusion process will only slightly restrict Reeve's ability move his head sideways and up and down.

Fusion surgery is designed to immobilize the damaged vertebrae and allow them a chance to heal, according to two surgeons familiar with such operations.

``It will allow him to begin his mobilization, to sit up and, hopefully, to begin his early rehabilitation. That will depend on his overall medical recovery,'' said Dr. Rick Delamarter, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles Comprehensive Spine Center.

``There's very little else medically that can be done,'' said Dr. Rick Delamarter, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles Comprehensive Spine Center.