All About Back Pain Treatments

Spine Specialists On-Call: Complex Cervical Spine Surgery and Anesthesia - Considerations Before and During Surgery

Complex cervical spine surgery requires careful preoperative planning to minimize the patient's risk for complication.

Surgery Recovery: From Hospital to Home

The first part of recovery from spine surgery begins in the hospital.

What Treatments Do Neurosurgeons Provide?

Neurosurgeons are trained in the latest surgical techniques to treat spinal disorders.Neurosurgeons are also able to prescribe medication and refer patients for physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement Technology: An Overview

Richard D. Guyer, MD, Chairman of the Texas Back Institute Research Foundation spoke with SpineUniverse about cervical artificial discs.Learn More.

Low-dose Opioids May Help Patients Confront Chronic Back Pain

Opioids make life easier for countless people who live with debilitating pain.

Opioid Pain Relievers

An in-depth description of opioid pain relievers with a view towards new technology.

Mininally Invasive Spine Surgery: Top 5 Questions Answered

Minimally invasive techniques have changed and improved the way many spine surgeries are performed today.

Antibiotic Prophylactic Treatment For Dental Work

Learn what the experts say about antibiotic prophylactic treatment for dental work for patients with spinal implants.

Tactical Treatments Help Manage Neck and Back Pain

Pain management specialists provide many different treatments, including activity modification, medications, therapeutic injections, physical therapy, and acupuncture.

Epidural Steroid Injections: Are They Useful?

Steroid injections into the lumbar epidural space are frequently used for low back and related radicular leg pains. The question is do they work? A prominent pain management specialist answers that question.

Spina Bifida: Complications Include Scoliosis and Kyphosis

Myelomeningocele is the most common and severe type of spina bifida. Potential complications include paralysis, bowel and bladder problems, scoliosis, kyphosis, Chiari malformation, clubfoot, and spinal cord tethering.

Spinal Cord Stimulation: Advantages and Risks and Who is a Candidate?

Are you a candidate for spinal cord stimulation? Review the advantages and risks to this pain management technique used for chronic pain patients. Article reviews who can have spinal cord stimulation.

Spinal Cord Stimulation for the Control of Chronic Back Pain

Spinal cord stimulation, also called neurostimulation, may allow patients to achieve significant or total relief from chronic back pain.

Spinal Cord Stimulation: Is it Right for You?

For some patients, spinal cord stimulation is an option to treat chronic low back pain.

Spinal Cord Stimulation: Risks and Benefits

While there is no guarantee that spinal cord stimulation will alleviate all of your discomfort, most patients report a 50% - 70% decrease in pain.

Back Pain Conditions Treated with Medications

If you have back pain or neck pain, regardless of your specific condition, drugs and medications will most likely be part of your treatment regimen.

Cervical Artificial Disc Preserves Neck Mobility: Part 2

The early results of the PRODISC-C artificial disc are promising. Patients return to activity sooner with pain relief and neck mobility.

Spinal Fusion or Artificial Disc Replacement? Spine Experts Speak Out

SpineUniverse spoke to several spine specialists about artificial disc replacement technology. Read on to find out what these experts think.

Artificial Discs: Spine Experts Speak Out

Are artificial cervical discs the cure for neck pain? Read what leading spine experts think about this alternative to spinal fusion and instrumentation.

Spine Surgeons Speak Out About Artificial Disc Replacement

Spine specialists agree that artificial disc replacement presents a challenge to the surgical community to use the same patient selection criteria contained in the FDA's study.

5 Things You Want to Know about Artificial Discs

What makes the artificial disc so exciting is that once it's implanted, the spine is still able to retain mobility and flexibility.

Cervical Artificial Disc Preserves Neck Mobility

A cervical artificial disc may be implanted to relieve pressure on spinal nerves. Spine specialists refer to this condition as nerve root compression.

Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement vs. Spinal Fusion

Dr. Guyer discusses the differences between cervical (neck) artificial disc replacement and spinal fusion.

Spine Biomechanics Laboratory May Help Select the Best Treatments for Spine Disorders

The Spinal Biomechanics Laboratory is helping patients understand exactly how spine conditions affect their movements and muscle activity, and quantifies how much improvement they have made following spine surgery and other treatments.

Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement: What You Need To Know

A good surgical candidate would have neck and arm pain. Artificial disc replacement in the kyphotic spine exacerbates existing instability and doesn’t help the situation at all. Learn More.

Opioids and Pain Relief

Opioids act by attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors, which are found in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract.

What is Pain Management?

What happens when back pain doesn't go away? Doctor Santhosh Thomas provides information about pain and pain management.

Wearing Your Spine Health on Your Sleeve

Wearables, which are devices you wear on your body that track certain types of health care information, instantly update spine specialists on how their patients are doing.

What is Pharmacogenetics?

Pharmacogenetics combines the study of how drugs work in the body with genetics. Future advances in this area will lead to 'personalized medicine'.

Before Your Surgery

Before your operation, it will be necessary to have blood tests, a chest x-ray and an EKG performed to evaluate your general condition before undergoing anesthesia.

Should You Trust Online Spine Surgery Information?

Researchers evaluated the quality of online information available to patients undergoing cervical spine surgery.

Epidural Steroid Injection Before Spine Surgery May Boost Infection Risk

While lumbar epidural steroid injections (LESIs) are considered a safe treatment and diagnostic tool, they come with risks.

Visit to a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC)

Similar to your medical doctor, your chiropractor will need your complete medical history including x-rays and MRI studies relevant to your current condition.

Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy (PNT)

Percutaneous neuromodulation therapy (PNT) is a non-invasive, low-risk procedure that can help treat pain.

What Should I Know about Lumbar Spinal Fusion?

A lumbar spinal fusion surgery may be recommended for various conditions. Learn how the surgeon will perform the fusion and how it will help your pain.

New Technology Advances Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

Minimally invasive surgery utilizes small skin incisions, and attempts to leave the body as naturally intact as it was prior to surgery.

Cervical Artificial Disc Surgery

The experience for the patient undergoing implantation of the Bryan artificial cervical disc is remarkably similar to that for a patient undergoing an anterior cervical decompression and fusion.

Case Report: Two Level Artificial Disc Placement to Treat Spondylotic Cervical Myelopathy

Case report about a 56-year-old woman who underwent two level cervical artificial disc replacement to treat spondylotic cervical myelopathy.

Foraminotomy: Posterior Cervical

If surgery is undertaken, it is usually performed as a minimally-invasive procedure. The procedure can be performed as a day stay surgery, but most patients stay in hospital for 1-2 nights.

Artificial Discs - The Future is Bright

Today there are four types of artificial disc designs; composite, hydraulic, elastic and mechanical. Learn about each of these design concepts.

Spinal Disc Replacement: The Development of Artificial Discs

Learn about Spinal Disc Replacement and the Development of Artificial Discs.

Safe Medication Use Before Spine Surgery

Some drugs and spine surgery don’t mix. Here’s what you need to know before your procedure.

Opioids in the Treatment of Acute Low Back Pain

Should opioids be used for acute low back pain? A pain management specialist addresses this important pain question.

Anti-depressant Medication Used to Treat Low Back Pain

Should you talk to your doctor about taking this for your low back pain?

Open Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF) - An Introduction

The following article provides a basic introduction to the (ALIF) anterior lumbar interbody fusion procedure.

Artificial Discs: Real Reconstructive Surgery for the Low Back

Artificial disc replacement surgery offers the very latest technology in spine surgery.

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is the third largest area of medicine. In his article, Dr. Ron Grassi explains the types of treatments DCs use to treat patients without drugs or surgery.

Low Back Pain and Artificial Disc Replacement

Artificial disc replacement is not for all patients with low back pain and it does not replace the need for spinal fusion.

Minimally Invasive Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (PLIF): A Beneficial Union

Spinal surgery has advanced to a new level that utilizes Minimal Access Spinal Technologies (MAST). These innovative surgical techniques replace traditional open procedures.

Case Report: 50-Year-Old Male Treated with PRODISC®

Read about the experience of a 50-year-old man who underwent disc replacement surgery as a participant in the nonrandomized portion of the PRODISC® disc replacement trial.

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All About Back Pain Treatments