News
Is your agonizing back or neck pain hurting your ability to enjoy life? Have standard treatments like physical therapy, pain management and other options not reduced the debilitating pain, which may be from a disc or structural spine condition?
If spine surgery hasn’t been discussed yet, it might be time to ask your doctor about it.
When surgery is appropriate
For the majority of patients suffering from back or neck pain or other spine-related issues, physical therapy, appropriate medications and injections and lifestyle modification often lead to reduced pain and improved function. At St. Luke’s Neurosurgical Associates, surgery may be recommended when non-surgical measures are unsuccessful in improving daily quality of life.
If you do need surgery, the good news is this: St. Luke’s Neurosurgical Associates offers both minimally invasive and ‘open’ spine surgery options to help relieve pain and other symptoms.
“Minimally invasive spine surgery reduces a patient’s blood loss and need for post-operative pain medications, promotes earlier out-of-bed movement, earlier discharge from the hospital and quicker recovery,” says fellowship trained neurosurgeon and spine specialist Doron Rabin, MD of St. Luke’s Neurosurgical Associates.
Dr. Rabin and his colleagues have expertise in open and minimally invasive spine surgery to help patients get back to work and spending time with family and friends. He performs nearly 100 percent of laminectomy, discectomy and decompression surgeries with a minimally invasive approach.
Surgical planning, evidence-based care and new technology to overcome pain
“We can provide patients with the best opportunity for success through tailored surgical planning and offer minimally invasive and open surgical approaches, new technologies in spinal navigation, instrumentation and fusion and artificial discs,” explains Dr. Rabin. “Most importantly, we understand how these approaches and technologies can be used to maximize the benefits to each individual patient.”
Most minimally invasive procedures, including some spinal fusions, require less than a day from start to discharge, says Dr. Rabin, who has been with St. Luke’s for nine years.
“We offer a full range of evidence-based care, including surgery, to our spine patients to help them overcome their pain,” Dr. Rabin adds. “When a patient leaves our office, they have our recommendation for moving forward and an understanding of the rationale behind that recommendation.”
