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…
The most critical question most patients ask when we discuss lumbar fusion is their chance of success. Historically, this was a very difficult question to answer. Surgeons have known the main indications for lumbar fusion, which mostly include: lumbar spondylolisthesis (slippage of one vertebral body over another), recurrent disc herniation, or the inability to perform…
The e-sport market is expected to be a billion-dollar business in 2019. That’s “B”… billion. I guess this is why esports players consider themselves “competitive video gamers” or “professional gamers”, and want that clear distinction from just “gaming”. The esports audience is estimated to be about 450 million fans, who Livestream platforms just to watch…
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers” – Thomas Jefferson When Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, he did what most patients do… he approached his treatment based on the evidence available to him. In Jobs’ case, he resisted his family’s urging…
Most people use social media to show pictures or videos of themselves, their family or their friends doing activities. Live-streaming involves simultaneously recording and broadcasting media online in real-time. It is becoming more popular and statistics indicate 42% of the US population have live-streamed online content at some point. Nearly 44% say they watch less…
While we recognize not everyone reading RMBSI’s blog includes Santa Claus in their winter celebrations, we all should be gravely concerned about the various neurosurgical issues the Big Guy may manifest. The monk, Saint Nicholas, was born in an unknown month of 280 AD in modern-day Turkey. So this year he would be ~ 1,739…
“So over at the VA, they had to replace it with plastic. It ain’t as strong, so I don’t know if I oughta go sailin’ down no hill with nothin’ between the ground and my brains but a piece of government plastic” -Cousin Eddie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation For some neurological conditions, including infection, tumor…
“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” – Mark Twain I often get asked by my patients, “At what point will I NEED surgery?” In the setting of weakness or numbness, cervical surgery may be offered sooner than later. This is also true if there is compression of the…
In May 2018, Governor Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 18-22 Clinical Practice for Opioid Prescribing. This limits the number of opioid pills a healthcare provider can prescribe and provides an outline for opiate management. From a surgeon’s perspective, we almost never provide preoperative opioids. After surgery, we try to incorporate ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) techniques…
This week’s blog will completely focus on Thanksgiving and skip the roundabout link to neurosurgery we usually try to include. “….and he realized as he spoke that the truth was slipping away from him, and soon he would no longer know what the truth was.” Paraphrased from Leo Tolstoy’s, War and Peace How did you…