Category: General Questions

When it comes to stem cells as a general rule, there’s simply not good evidence that it does anything for anybody. So if patients really want it done, I will offer that to them. But typically, I think there are other minimally invasive treatment options that have been time tested that are much more effective, that should be tried first.

Stem cell therapy kind of peaked in popularity five to 10 years ago when, before we could really see outcomes and results. It’s very rare for me to do a stem cell injection at at this time, as frankly, there’s just not good evidence to support that. It’s really helped that many people, so it’s a very expensive procedure.

It has limited risks, but if it’s not gonna work, and I tell my patients, we don’t know if it’s gonna work or think it’s gonna work, then the question is, well, why do it?

Stem cell therapy kind of peaked in popularity five to 10 years ago, when before we could really see outcomes and results. It’s very rare for me to do a stem cell injection at this time, as frankly, there’s just not good evidence to support that it’s really helped that many people. So it’s a very expensive procedure.

It has limited risks, but if it’s not gonna work, and I tell my patients we don’t know if it’s gonna work or think it’s gonna work, then the question is, well, why do it?

For the future of spinal surgery as we progress, I think the current trends will continue in that more and more spine surgery will be routinely done at an outpatient surgery center. That trend has been very strong the last several years, and I think it’ll continue indefinitely. As we found that a lot of these procedures that we thought had to be done in a hospital, really the patients do just as well, or even better if it’s done in a surgery center.

For via disc patients who undergo an injection, sometimes physical therapy can be indicated just for their overall back health. As a general rule, though, the procedure itself doesn’t require physical therapy.