Rehabilitation

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

My Top 7 Tips for Weight Lifting with Back and Neck Pain

I often get asked by back- and neck-pain patients how they should be working out at the gym or with a personal trainer. While there are no published and tested guidelines, what follows is what I have learned through years of trial and error as someone who has both issues and who likes working out.…read more

Fix the Neck Curve: Surgery Is Not the Answer

The neck curve is the red-headed stepchild of spine care. Thankfully, spine surgeons, after ignoring this issue for many years, are just starting to realize its importance. Regrettably, the surgeries they’re performing to fix the neck curve are for the most part unnecessary and causing more harm than good, but, heck, you can’t have everything. Let’s…read more

Hip Replacement Jogging: Will You be Able to Run After Your Hip Replacement?

One of the more common questions I get asked by patients is about hip replacement jogging or whether they can run again after a hip replacement. The answer is tough, as there’s not that much research. However, some new research out of Japan may help answer this question. The authors looked at 804 hips in 608…read more

Lateral Release Recovery: Do We Know this Knee Surgery Actually Works?

Why undergo lateral release recovery at all? If I had to create a list of bad knee surgeries just based on the hundreds of patients I’ve seen with failed knee surgeries, lateral release for knee cap tracking problems would be near the top of that list. Based on that experience, it’s another knee surgery with…read more

Knee Plica Surgery?

A Google search under Knee Plica Surgery yields many other searches such as Knee Plica Recovery and Knee Plica Surgery Recovery Time. First, what the heck is a plica and why are so many patients concerned about recovery and recovery time? The general concept is that the normal synovial covering of the knee joint is getting pinched and irritated…read more