Golfers and Back Pain Options

June 12, 2025


I take care of a lot of golfers with low back pain. Um, options are the same as anybody else. You start with over-the-counter medications, prescription medications if you need to, physical therapy, progress to injections, and then ultimately, if the pain is not relieved or symptoms aren’t relieved, the surgical options are reviewed with the patient.

For golfers specifically, surgical options have to be tailored to that patient. That involves really getting to know the patient, knowing the patient’s goals, really understand that what’s wrong with them, and trying to get them better with the least intervention possible so that they can get back to golfing.

What Should I Expect After Spine Surgery

June 10, 2025


What to expect after spine surgery varies a lot by patient and surgery performed. Generally if it’s outpatient surgery or surgery where you go home the same day, you will have pain, but it should be manageable with pain pills you can take by mouth. Patients that need hospitalization for bigger surgery, obviously have a little bit of a slow recovery and can expect pain in the hospital, which will be managed, either with pain medication by mouth or IV pain medication.

Most patients rehab is part of their recovery from spine surgery and as rehab progresses, patients tend to get more and more back to normal.

The Benefits of Spine Surgery

June 2, 2025


The benefits of spine surgery typically surround restoring quality of life. The vast majority of patients I operate on are because of pain, nothing else. So patients that are suffering in pain from a pinched nerve can really be in bad shape and really have very little quality of life. So the mean benefit of surgery is to relieve some or all of that patient’s pain and get them back to where they need to be.

The Risks of Spine Surgery

May 27, 2025


The risks and benefits of spine surgery share some of the common risks of any type of surgery, which is in general all the horrible things you can think of. You’re having surgery, anything can happen. The risks are generally very focused, depending upon the procedure is, for instance, your single biggest risk from cervical surgery is having difficulty swallowing for a couple days.

Secrets to Finding the Right Doctor

May 20, 2025


In my opinion, lumbar fusions as a procedure are often overperformed. That’s why it’s important to find a surgeon who’s gonna look for all options other than a fusion to try and get you better. Ultimately, if you do need a a fusion, a surgeon that’s gonna try and do the minimum and the best way possible to get you better with the least intervention possible.