Adam P. Smith, MD, FAANS is a board certified neurosurgeon and Rocky Mountain Brain & Spine Institute is his business providing neurosurgical information to the community. He is committed to the wellness of the patients he treats. Dr. Smith uses minimally invasive surgical approaches for the brain and spine, and uses the most up-to-date neuroimaging, surgical navigation, robotic and artificial intelligence modalities.
When evaluating a patient, providers need to know exactly where the pain starts and potentially radiates in the body. The components of a pain history are location, quality, intensity, aggravating and alleviating factors. The most basic is location. Cervical Neck pain very often is midline in the neck or slightly lateralized to the muscles on…
The United States has the largest number of stem cell clinics in the world. For anywhere between $2,500 to upwards of $20,000 cash, anyone can have stem cells injected in their spine. Most clinics offering this therapy advertise the regenerative nature of their procedure. “…industry-leading experience”, “… published research”, “… specialized training”. I’ve personally heard…
Many of us watching Monday Night Football, Raiders versus the Broncos, saw the concerning injury to Raider’s cornerback Gareon Conley. While attempting to tackle Bronco’s Royce Freeman, the Raider’s safety, Abram, caught the top of Conley’s helmet with his leg, producing sudden axial compression and flexion. One of the most dangerous compression/ flexion injuries to…
These days there are phone apps for dating, banking, travel booking, ordering food… you name it. As a physician, I can even find apps to help me with medication dosing and interactions, or medical information. In the European Union and United Kingdom, Kaia Health recently created a “back pain app”, which offers video exercises with…
It has recently been purported that other civilized nations have better healthcare than the United States. If we were to adopt systems similar to Canada or Europe, then our care would be cheaper, faster and better. Canada and some European countries have tax-subsidized healthcare. Legal residents, but no illegal immigrants, obtain “free” healthcare. But by…
Dye your hair… get a piercing… get a tattoo? A recent article published in Plos ONE, August 2019, describes 3 different adolescent male skeletons found in Croatia from the Great Migration Period. What is most interesting is that one is thought to be from West Eurasia, one from East Asia, and one Near Eastern. So…
Unauthorized wall-jumping has led to many deaths, but from 2012 to 2017 64 patients suffered from cranial or spine trauma from wall-jumping. Read the article below to learn more about these injuries and how these patients are treated for their injuries. Was Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, correct? Do “Good fences make good neighbors”? The…
The joke usually ends: you get your house back, your wife back, your dog back, your truck back… However when country musician Drake White started singing his song wrong and stumbled on stage last week, it wasn’t a joke at all… it was a symptom of his brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM). This past January, Mr.…
Neuroscientists aren’t just nerds! Many neuroscientists have different backgrounds whether they started their career in that field or not. Read the article below to find out more on these two neuroscientists. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness……
While many have seen scorpions in movies and the harmful effects they have on humans, people are unaware of the fact that Deathstalker scorpions proteins can help treat brain cancer. Read the article below to find out more about this new discovery called Tozuleristide. Turns out that only 25 of the 1,500 known scorpion species…