Denver neurosurgeon, Dr. Adam P. Smith, MD, discusses different cervical spine surgery options, including ACDF for cervical myelopathy. Check out the video below for more on these treatments. Also, for more information on our specialties and the conditions we treat, click here! Visit and subscribe to the Rocky Mountain Brain and Spine Institute Youtube channel…
We have not yet posted on the COVID-19 pandemic, despite it being the greatest healthcare and global economic shock in recent history. Rocky Mountain Brain & Spine Institute blogs have tried to focus on neurosurgical topics, and while other coronaviruses have affected the central nervous system, COVID-19 is primarily a respiratory illness. We will leave…
The minimally invasive tubular decompression is a workhorse procedure for spine surgeons. Patients complaining of leg symptoms with a focal disc herniation who have failed conservative options can undergo this procedure with great success. Most patients go home the same day, just a few hours after surgery. Good results are achieved in 80-90% of patients…
Conservative treatment is often tried before considering low back surgery. Time, anti-inflammatory medication, physical therapy, yoga, and injections are reasonable modalities. Even after surgery, adjuvant options may be considered. Often when patients present in a neurosurgery clinic, they have already tried injections and ponder if they have pursued enough to consider surgery. It’s not uncommon…
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be” – Wayne Gretzky In ice hockey, players like Patrick Kane are thought to have “good hands”. Filthy moves… dekes and dangles that defy all three of Newton’s laws. For anyone who wants to debate…
As a spine surgeon, I have been rhetorically asked by patients with chronic spine pain, “Can you just remove my spine?” Of course, the answer is “no”, we don’t do “spine-ectomies”. Even though 90% of animals don’t have one, the backbone is one of the most important evolutionary innovations in the history of life. Vertebrates…
We have previously written an article on the range of motion following a lumbar fusion. The postoperative flexibility seems to be based primarily on the mobility prior to surgery. Of course, the more levels fused, and which levels fused, also contributes to the range of motion. However, many joints are used to maintain the flexibility…
As a neurosurgeon, my patients occasionally refer to me by numerous friendly slang terms, including “doc”, “sawbones”, “spine guy”, “pop the topper”… I’m most commonly mistakenly called a neurologist, which is a similar specialty, but a non-surgical and completely separate field treating the nervous system. However, I’ve found it interesting that psychiatrists are routinely called…
Spinal cord injury in ice hockey is a rare event but does occur. I was in high school when my coaches showed us the video of Travis Roy crashing into the boards, 11 seconds into his first collegiate shift at Boston University. Travis Roy suffered a spinal cord injury, changing his life forever, and becoming…
Spinal fusion often involves placing metal screws with rods or plates to immobilize bones and allow them to “fuse”, or grow together. I always tell my patients that fusion is a two-part process. The first part is the actual surgery, in which the nerves are decompressed and then the metal implants are placed. However, the…