Invasive Surgery

Protecting Yourself From Overly Aggressive Surgery and Procedures

If there’s one big mistake I see most patients make that places them at risk, it’s not understanding how to gauge the risk of procedural-based care. So the goal this morning is to help you understand how to protect you, and your loved ones, from us doctors. Let’s dig in. Complications Complications can happen in…read more

New Research: Low Back Fusion Surgeries Are Ineffective

Low back fusion in medicine is one of those procedures that some doctors have come to hate. Why? While a handful of patients do fine, many become lifelong patients with new problems caused by the procedure. So I have to say that I’m happy that the research has finally caught up to what we see…read more

Should We Be Cementing Fractured Back Bones?

This is an interesting blog for me to write. On the one hand, I have colleagues that perform vertebroplasty to treat thoracic compression fractures and say that it can be amazing, older people get rolled in and walk out. On the other hand, the idea of bone cement, an artificial substance to glue bones back…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

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

Hand Surgery Side Effects That Can Easily Be Avoided…

If you’ve ever wondered why sometimes I seem to be a bit “anti-surgery,” you would only need to spend a day with me in clinic to find out why. We see surgery train wrecks day in and day out. What makes them so upsetting is that most of the time, the surgery could have been…read more

What Causes Knee Pain After Knee Replacement and Why Is It So Common?

On this page: Incidence of chronic knee pain after surgery Additional studies on knee pain after knee replacement Why your knee might not be the cause of your knee pain The main reason you might make the drastic decision to undergo a knee replacement is to relieve your chronic knee pain, but did you know…read more

Laser Back Surgery vs. Traditional Spine Surgery

Is LASER surgery a back surgery alternative? The picture above of Dr. Evil is arguably the world’s most famous air quote. He does this as he describes the laser he has placed on the moon to disintegrate the earth. I feel a little like making this air quote as I speak to some patients about “LASER” Spine…read more