Complications

Complications are unintended and often undesirable outcomes that can occur during medical procedures or treatments. They can range from minor issues to more serious adverse events and may arise due to various factors such as underlying health conditions, surgical errors, or reactions to medications. Understanding complications is crucial for healthcare providers to anticipate risks, mitigate potential harms, and ensure patient safety.

Subscribe to the Blog

BioRenew® PTM Therapy™? Ugghhh! I Can’t Keep Up!

I can no longer keep up with the new stuff online claiming to involve stem cells and regenerative medicine. It’s officially out of control. However, my inbox continues to be pinged with new information almost daily. The newest I have seen is BioRenew® PTM Therapy™. What’s this? A re-branding of the same old placental tissue…read more

Don’t Expect to Toss the Opioids After Spinal Fusion

Most patients I speak to who are contemplating a spinal fusion for low back pain believe that their pain will be solved and that they will be able to stop using narcotics. However, what if that wasn’t remotely true? Would they still sign up for this invasive and potentially dangerous surgical procedure? New research suggests…read more

Is Hip PAO Surgery a Bad Idea?

I have my list of surgeries that when I first learned of them, my reaction was, “They did what to you!?” Hip PAO surgery has been on that list for years. Why? Its goal is to replace the need for a hip replacement, but it’s far more invasive than the surgery it seeks to prevent. Let me…read more

RIP Hip Impingement Surgery?

OK, let’s be honest here. The research base behind the world’s most common orthopedic surgical procedures is blowing up or, more accurately, falling down. It’s been an absolutely awful run for common procedures like knee debridement, meniscectomy, rotator cuff repair, and other common surgeries that make up many billions in annual healthcare spending in the U.S. Frankly,…read more

Opioids No Better than Tylenol for Pain?

I’ve never been a fan of narcotic/opioid medications. Fifteen years ago, when sales reps for pharma companies descended on our office to extoll the virtues of prescribing high-dose narcotics to our pain patients, I thought these folks were crazy. Obviously, the whole thing turned into a mess of gargantuan proportions, with opioids killing many patients…read more

Are All Hip Replacement Devices Associated with Pseudotumors?

A few years back, I blogged on a research study that looked at masses that were associated with metal-on-metal hip replacement surgeries called pseudotumors. However, now new research shows that these awful side effects may be more common than anyone realized and occur with other types of hip replacement devices as well. In fact, they…read more

Is Nonsurgical Treatment for Rotator Cuff Tears a Long-Term Solution?

In today’s modern world, if you’re middle-aged and feel a sudden stabbing pain in your shoulder and then it continues to ache, you get an MRI. If that shoulder study shows a big enough rotator cuff tear, you’re quickly spirited off to surgery. However, what would happen if you never had the surgery? Would it…read more

The Long-Term Side Effects of Spinal Fusion

On this page: The structure of the spine Fusion can cause adjacent segment disease The long-term side effects of spinal fusion The purpose of a spinal fusion is to stop movement. A one-level fusion removes the disc between two vertebrae and uses screws and other hardware to force the two vertebrae together, which then fuse…read more
TO TOP
livechat button