Degenerative Conditions

Setting an Ethical Framework for Preventative Orthobiologics

Anyone practicing legit high-level Interventional Oorthobiologics (IO) has had the experience of a patient asking to have an area or body part treated just because that patient has some degenerative changes on imaging but no symptoms. As a field, I would argue that we are the first physicians in history to begin addressing this dilemma…read more

Why the C1-C2 Facet Joint Is Inherently Unstable

Your neck has joints about the size of your finger joints that help to control motion. One of them is pretty unique and is responsible for most of your head rotation. It’s also designed in a unique way that makes it inherently unstable and can cause vicious headaches if injured. Let’s explore the C1-C2 facet…read more

Is American Cell Technology the Second Coming of US Stem Cell?

One of more interesting and not helpful chapters in regenerative medicine was when a company called US Stem Cell blinded three patients by injecting fat stem cells into their eyes. The company last year lost its battle with the FDA and let go of their fake Ph.D. Chief Science Officer, but recently a colleague asked…read more

Can Obesity Turn Your Spine Ligaments Into Inflexible Bone?

We know that being overweight places us at all sorts of enhanced risks for various serious diseases. We also know that it adversely impacts your spine and joints not only because of the extra forces but also because of chemical influences. New research has a new risk for the spine: your ligaments may turn to…read more

RIP Cervical Disc Replacement: Side Effects Same as Fusion

I’ll never forget when a local surgeon, who was being paid handsomely by disc replacement manufacturers, placed his new credo “friends don’t let friends fuse” on his website. The idea was that now that we had disc replacement technology, keeping some motion in the spine would reduce the side effects compared to fusion. For the…read more

We Should Never Be Proud of MRIs That Show Holes Burned in Patient’s Bodies…

A new study was recently published on a new treatment for back pain due to degenerative discs. Ordinarily, I would be excited, as what’s not to like about another treatment option for back-pain patients. However, the problem with this one is that it works by blasting a hole in the vertebrae? Yep, you heard that…read more

Another Lower Back Stem Cell Injection Patient Result

Way back when, in 2005/6, when I injected the first patient in the world with stem cells into a damaged low back disc, it was “way out there.” In fact, we had to be under the supervision of an Institutional Review Board just to get it done. How times have changed in 13 short years.…read more

Cervical Disc Replacement Complications: Metal Ions

We ended the 20th century with the idea that we could cut out parts of a person, like a joint or a disc, and insert metal and achieve great things. Then reality got in the way, in that studies began to show that these metal or plastic or ceramic parts wear down and those particles…read more