Archive for August, 2010

I’m excited to see that patients are using the Internet more frequently prior to a doctor visit. They are much better informed and can research topics or know their physician’s credential. In my practice, we specialize in minimally invasive surgery of the neck and back. I have engaged in research for years and all patients should look for validation of various procedures being recommended before making a decision regarding surgery.

I am seeing more patients wanting to undergo less invasive procedures for treatment if their neck or back pain. Nerve blocks work very well but only for short period of time in many patients. All patients should know all their options and certainly surgical solutions have become much less invasive. Spinal stenosis or disc disease are two major success areas for these newer procedures.

There is a new procedure to hold open a collapsed disc space that can be performed through a very small incision that I now offer to patients. The goal is to get patients with degenerative disc disease back to work quickly with less down time. Removing disc with underlying arthitic disease will make the problem worse and I see a tremendous number of failures.