What is a Spinal Fracture?

February 12, 2025


A spinal fracture is a broken bone somewhere in the spine, anywhere from the bottom of the skull to the tailbone. Their presentation or symptoms vary tremendously, very commonly in osteoporosis, they can even occur spontaneously. So someone older with soft bone all of a sudden feels back pain, bending to lift or pick something up. Often an x-ray will diagnose it right away.

Spinal Stenosis Symptoms in the Lower Back?

February 5, 2025


Spinal stenosis in the low back often starts with back pain, back pain that’s worse with walking, causing the patient to lean forward to open up the spinal canal. Classically, patients with spinal stenosis in the low back, they do well going to the supermarket because they lean over the cart and it makes more room for their spinal canal.

Spinal Stenosis Symptoms

January 29, 2025


Spinal stenosis in the cervical spine or neck, if it gets bad enough, will cause patients to experience clumsiness, difficulty walking, difficulty with steps, numbness, tingling, and burning sensations throughout. Generally when it gets to that point, it’s a pretty severe situation and often requires timely surgical intervention.

What is Spinal Stenosis?

January 22, 2025


Spinal stenosis is a condition where the spinal canal is narrow. In medicine, the word stenosis just means narrowing. So if you’re talking to a heart doctor, it’s narrowing of some valve or structure around the heart. If you’re talking to a spine doctor, it’s narrowing of the spinal canal. It can cause pressure on the nerves and other types of dysfunction.

How do You decide what Type of Surgery to Perform?

January 14, 2025


When I consider the types of surgery to perform, I usually go with the most minimally invasive surgery as a first line intervention. A very common example of that would be in the low back. There’s some patients that may ultimately seem like they need a fusion. But there’s a good chance with a minor outpatient procedure you could relieve enough of their symptoms without having to do fairly major surgeries such as putting screws and rods at their back.

When that’s an option I always go with a smaller procedure after a discussion with the patient.