Good Morning Spine

Conditioning the spine will have the same preventative effect as a cardiac rehab program. Load bearing activities that increase heart rate also make the disc and vertebrae much less likely to deteriorate over time.Patients need to exercise 45 minutes 5 days per week and also maintain their weight. Taking pain meds and excessive injection are only short term solutions for back pain.

Many patients want non-surgical treatment as an option. We offer a variety of injections that place steroids near the nerve or joint in the spine that can have almost immediate effect on your pain. However, overuse of blocks can also lead to missing an opportunity to repair a nerve. The overuse of steroids can affect other organ systems in a negative way. Ask your doctor to explain this to you.

Yesterday, I operated on an 88 year old patient. It still amazes me me how well these senior oatients do if surgery is less then two hours. He is very active and actual healh very good so we proceeded with caution at his request. Using small implants is the key to stabilizing the spine for his very severe spinal stenosis. I believe age is not issue but returning back quality of life.

When you are considering surgery you want to have an understanding of all options and their published success rate.I have always used 80 percent as this the best numbers for success when you review the majority of articles on laminectony and fusion. I try to managed patients expectation explaining these surgeries will not make them perfect and that is why all proven options should be considered. However, when you consider improvement of this magnitude patients are very grateful.

I always try a combination of simple injections under fluro with medication as well as therapy for the vast majority of patients with spinal stenosis or disc rupture. Surgery should be the last resort unless there are serious symtoms such as weakness or loss of bowel or bladder control. Patients should know surgery is in the 5 percent range for most of my patients.

Patients should not be lured by self-serving claims about results without independent verification. I see so many cases of failure because the original surgery did not address the problem with a procedure that could have possibly worked. Ask your surgeon for all options and what their published success rate using any new technique. Find out if they are members of medical societies such as NASS or SMISS ?We all have failures but try to lower them to less then ten percent.

Patients should be extremely careful when spine websites make claims about their results without any published data from peer-reviewed sources. I am proud to display my training and published works but note other sites do not do this. Laser has become a very frequently sited example of these kinds of claims. Look for the published results! Most spine surgeons understand the role of laser but it really is just another cutting tool and there are many other minimally invasive ways to treat the spine that have documented outcomes.Most cases of stenosis are not as simple as removing a disc where laser is most likely to be a reasonable choice.Spinal stenosis requires a large thoughtout decision that include stabilization when there is associated slip or evidence of excessive instability.

Patients need to really understand the damage obesity causes to their spine which will cause compression of disc. The disc is fluid filled and load causes outer rim to bulge where it may contact the spinal nerves. This pressure causes sciatic symtoms. The number one goal should be to lower processed foods and decrease sugar carbs in your diet as well as steady routine of exercise. So much of these problems can be prevented. Pain meds and injections only treat the symptoms.

I believe that my philosophy of team approach with Dr Geisse a recent addition to our practice give each patient the benefit of a spine surgeon and neurologist perspectus. We try medication and she has introduced many new options to my addition of nerve blocks for sciatica and back pain. We have lowered surgical option to under 5 percent.

I strongly believe spinal surgeons need stay in control of what happens to patients after referrals to pain management. These doctors are good at needle placement but do not have real understanding of spinal pathology.I feel we meet patients when they are most vulnerable and can easily be sold on things that cannot possibly solve their problem. We must protect our patients and be available for them is the real challenge for all spinal surgeons.