Adjacent Segment Disease
Adjacent Segment Disease (ASD) is a condition that can develop after spinal fusion surgery, where the discs and vertebrae adjacent to the fused segment experience accelerated degeneration. In our series of blogs, we explore the underlying causes, symptoms, and advanced treatment options for ASD, providing valuable insights for patients and healthcare professionals seeking to understand and manage this complex condition.
Subscribe to the BlogMIS, the Minuteman, and Fusion: Is This a Good Idea?
I cruised around on Linkedin this morning and chanced upon a discussion where someone had fused a patient for a herniated disc. This raised a critical point regarding fusion and the new trend for interventional pain management (IPM) physicians to fuse patients using “MIS.” Let’s review that idea through one specific device that IPM physicians…read more
The Artificial Disc Replacement Hustle
Medicine is often more about marketing than reality. One area where masterful marketing has overtaken reality is the promise of an artificial disc. Let’s explore the hype and the reality today. The Promise of the ADR Both fusion and disc replacement surgery are performed in patients with DDD (Degenerative Disc Disease). DDD is when the…read more
ANOTHER Study Shows Fusion Is an Expensive Tip
What if a very invasive spine procedure became common to treat degenerative disease despite a high complication rate and multiple studies showing it was ineffective? This would make little common sense, right? However, that’s what has happened with Lumbar Fusion. Now yet another new study shows it doesn’t work. Let’s dig in. What Is DDD…read more
Why Are Interventional Pain Physicians Becoming Spine Surgeons?
We’ve all started attending in-person conferences again while some are still virtual. Having not been doing this for two years, one of the things that startled me was the number of booths selling percutaneous fusion devices to interventional pain physicians. So what’s up? Is this a good or a bad trend? What Is an Interventional…read more
Profiting from Amnio, Exosomes, and Umbilical Cord Products Right Up to the Wire and Beyond
With the FDA enforcement discretion period rapidly coming to a close, how are some of the bad actors responding? After investigating this, it’s a mix of retreating, garbled messages, and business as usual. In addition, like a game of telephone, the sales reps are making up all sorts of crazy stuff. Let’s dig in. The…read more
SI Joint Fusion Complications? Why Are We Doing this to Patients?
One of the biggest issues I see is how easily interventional pain physicians have been lured in by quasi-spine surgeries that they know are bad for their patients. A case in point is SI fusion. Let’s dig into SI joint fusion complications through a case posted on LinkedIn. What Is the SI Joint? The acronym…read more
Spinal Fusion Is It Worth It? More Research Says No…
A spinal fusion is a surgery that uses hardware and screws to “fix” together two or more vertebrae to make a damaged section of spine immovable. Given that this is a big surgery with many known serious side effects, a patient the other day posed this question: “Spinal fusion is it worth it?” My answer,…read more Pain After Neck Fusion: Adjacent Segment Disease
This past week, I have have seen several patients with neck fusions. All of whom had pain caused by the fusion. For some, the fusion had helped one problem and caused another. For others, the fusion didn’t help and just made things worse. So what’s going on? An Overview of the Spinal Column To understand…read more 
