Patients can determine Spine Surgery Results
YOU can make a difference in your SPINE SURGERY results! While patients often will look towards the skill of the surgeon, there are other important factors that will determine the outcome. Following post operative instructions can have a significant effect on the outcome. YOU can improve your SPINE SURGERY OUTCOMES by listening to your SURGEON. […]
Prolotherapy and Spine Pain
As a Spine Specialist, there are times when our traditional treatments just have not been beneficial. In my opinion, as a surgeon, the patients with the very large disk herniations, and with the corresponding physical complaints and findings are the easiest to treat. Epidural steriod injections are often beneficial. For these patients, surgical management is […]
Depression and Spine Surgery
Unfortunately, there is a bit of the “chicken or the egg” analogy in terms of the association of depression and chronic pain. By definition (NIH) chronic pain is a continuous constant pain that is more than three months in duration. Pain, in the acute setting, is a very important response. While not pleasant (understatement, […]
Lumbar Fusion Adjacent Level Disease
In the July 2004 Edition of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Dr. Ghiselli et al performed a retrospective review on patients that had undergone lumbar fusions by primarily by the Late Dr. Edgar Dawson, distinguished professor and spine surgeon affliated with UCLA. The goal was to establish the rate of developing symptomatic adjacent […]
Breast Reduction Surgery for Back Pain
Big Breasts can cause back pain! This is obviously a sensitive topic, but a common one discussed in many spine surgeon’s offices. Just so it is clear, spine surgeons do NOT perform Breast Reduction Surgery. We, however, are asked if the large sized breasts are the source of neck and or upper back pain. Breast […]
Percutaneous Discectomy
What is Percutaneous Discectomy? Just the words themselves seem intimidating. But, in the most basic form, it means a large bore needle is placed into the disk, and either a suction device, or a disc vaporization device is used to remove disk material from the end of the needle. usually, a very small incision, or […]
The Advantages of Cervical Foraminotomy
I am assuming you have already had the discussion about the need for a neck surgery for a pinched nerve in the neck. Let us assume you have already failed the standard non-surgical treatments including time, medications, therapy and injections. Let us further assume certain diagnostic tests have isolated the pinched nerves to a specific […]
The Cost of Healthcare in the USA
Healthcare expenses in the United States exceeds 17% of GDP and over $2.8 trillion in 2012. Yet the Physician fee component of that expense is only 8%. In this debate over how to control expenses, most of the focus seems to be on curbing the Physician fee. WHY? Should we not focus on […]
Update on Adjacent Segment Degeneration
There remains considerable controversy on the nature of Adjacent Segment Degeneration after lumbar fusion. To the non-spine surgeons, the issue is the theory that a fusion operation places more stress on the levels above or below the fusion, and will lead to accelerated degeneration and subsequent surgery. In fact, most surgeons will tell patients about […]
Spine Arthritis
Spine Arthritis has many forms. The most common is secondary to the natural aging process. While there are many scientific studies on why we get arthritis, we have to accept the fact that our bodies are programmed to degenerate over time. All things wear out over time. The human body does have an amazing ability […]
