Spine care

Your spine is constantly under pressure to perform various tasks. The different components of the spine, including the vertebrae, intervertebral disks, and facet joints, work in harmony to support your body, allow movement, and safeguard your spinal cord. If the spine is injured or experiences degeneration, it can impair its function and lead to symptoms that impact your daily life. In such cases, consulting a spine surgeon may be necessary.

Non-surgical spine treatments

Non-surgical spine treatments are various methods used to alleviate pain and improve function in the spine without surgical intervention. These treatments can be highly effective for managing conditions such as herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and chronic lower back or neck pain.

Here are some common non-surgical spine treatment options:

• Physical Therapy: Tailored exercise programs designed to strengthen muscles, increase flexibility, and improve posture to support the spine.
• Medications: Use of pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, or nerve pain medications to manage pain and inflammation.
• Epidural Steroid Injections: Injection of steroids directly into the epidural space around the spinal cord to reduce inflammation and alleviate pain.
• Manual therapy: Manual adjustment of the spine by a chiropractor to improve alignment and function.
• Acupuncture: Traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves inserting thin needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain and promote healing.
• Traction: The use of pulleys and weights to gently stretch the back, which can help relieve pressure on the spine.
• Lifestyle Modifications: Changes in daily activities and ergonomics to avoid movements that aggravate back pain, alongside weight loss and quitting smoking to improve overall spine health.

These treatments, often used in combination, can be personalized based on the specific needs and condition of the patient to effectively manage spinal issues without surgery.

Spine surgery

Spine surgery is considered depending on your diagnosis or when non-surgical treatments such as medications, physical therapy, and injections fail to relieve symptoms caused by problems in the spine.

Our team of board-certified orthopedic surgeons diagnose and treat various spine-related including back pain, neck pain, leg or arm pain and tingling, scoliosis, spinal fractures, spinal tumors, and spinal infections.

The goals of spine surgery typically include relieving pressure on spinal nerves (decompression), stabilizing the spinal structure, and correcting deformities.

Here are some common types of spine surgery:

• Lumbar Microdiscectomy: This procedure involves the removal of a portion of a disc that is herniated and is pressing on a nerve root or the spinal cord, causing pain or other symptoms.
• Cervical Laminoplasty: Performed to treat multilevel spinal stenosis with normal alignment, this surgery involves removing part of the bone, the lamina, from the back of the vertebra to create more space for the nerves.
• Spinal fusion: Spinal fusion permanently connects two or more vertebrae in the spine, eliminating motion between them. This is done to restore stability to the spine, reduce pain, or correct a deformity.
• Artificial Disc Replacement: This is a newer type of surgery that involves replacing a damaged spinal disc with an artificial one. It is an alternative to spinal fusion for some patients and aims to maintain more normal motion at the segment level.
• Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS): These are techniques that use smaller incisions and cause less damage to the surrounding tissues compared to traditional surgery. MISS can be used for discectomies, laminectomies, and even some fusion surgeries, leading to potentially quicker recovery times and less postoperative pain.
• Cervical Laminectomy and Fusion: This is often done for people who are middle-aged or older and have narrowing of the cervix or pressure on the spinal cord at multiple levels.
• Sacroiliac Joint Fusion: This procedure is performed for sacroiliac joint dysfunction or arthritis. It is a minimally invasive procedure done as an outpatient.
• Kyphoplasty: This procedure is performed in older patients with metastatic cancer or osteoporotic compression fractures to relieve pain and restore vertebral height. It is done on an outpatient (no hospital stay needed).

The decision to undergo spine surgery is significant and typically involves a detailed evaluation by a spine specialist, who will consider the specific symptoms, the patient’s overall health, and the likely outcomes of surgical versus non-surgical treatments. Recovery times and rehabilitation requirements can vary depending on the type of surgery and the individual’s condition.

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