Minimally Invasive Procedures

Pain in Base of Thumb: Convincing a Skeptic

More than a year ago I was lecturing at a medical conference, and a woman who was a stem cell scientist approached me. While some scientists usually don’t like physicians using stem cells, this one had pain in the base of the thumb and asked if I could help. I just received an e-mail back from her,…read more

Can We Treat Severe Shoulder Arthritis Through an Injection?

Orthopedic surgeons have taught us that our bodies are just machines, like your car engine, and that when a part breaks down, it needs to be replaced. So they can’t conceptualize how a severely arthritic shoulder joint with no cartilage and huge bone spurs could be treated without replacing the shoulder. However, that’s not what…read more

What Is This Doctor Thankful for on Thanksgiving? New CRPS Treatments

One of the worst diseases you can have is something called CRPS, or complex regional pain syndrome. Think of CRPS like bringing a can of gasoline to your pain bonfire. Or maybe better said, CRPS is like an accelerator stuck to the floorboard of the pain car without any working brakes. It’s awful. This year…read more

Why Is Regenexx the Best That’s Out There?

How can Regenexx claim that it’s the most advanced and best-researched orthopedic stem cell therapy in the world? After all, if you cruise the Internet, you’ll find any number of clinics, all proclaiming that they’re the “best” or the “greatest” or “experts.” However, if you look “under the hood” of any of these web-sites and…read more

Hip Labrum Surgery Complications: Making the Hip Unstable…

This week while practicing down in Grand Cayman I evaluated a professional ballerina from Germany who regrettably is having issues with recovery due to hip labrum surgery complications. In her case, she was diagnosed with CAM and pincer impingement and since having these bone spurs removed has never been able to get back to high level…read more

New Treatment for Neck Pain: Platelet Lysate and Heidi’s Journey

At our annual Regenexx network provider conference in Denver this past week, a network physician who is more focused on interventional spine came up and thanked me for introducing him to a new treatment for neck pain – platelet lysate. This one change had revolutionized his practice as he found it much more effective than…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

Back Fusion Outcome: Fusion Leads to Dead Multifidus

Decisions in Medicine like most things are based on risk vs. benefit.  There are life saving procedures and surgeries where the answer is clear, but in non emergency situations, are we doing greater good than harm?  A new study looks at the potential damage done to the multifidus in the common surgery, back fusion. So what is…read more