One of the more common questions that my partners and I hear from patients is whether we perform laser spine surgery. When told that we don’t, the typical response is a mixture of disappointment, confusion and frustration. At this point during a patient consultation, I explain that, in my professional opinion, laser spine surgery is…
Spinal Outcomes
Anyone who is contemplating having spine surgery wants to have a good outcome, but very few people know what actually goes into making this happen. It not only involves the expertise of your surgeon and his/her staff, but many important events that occur before and after the patient gets to the operating room. The following…
Sciatica – What is it and how do we treat it?
Constant pain in one of your legs, increased pain while sitting, a frequent case of burning, tingling, or searing pain in your leg, sharp pain that makes it difficult to stand up or walk. Do any of these symptoms sound uncomfortably familiar? You might be suffering from Sciatic Pain. First, let’s break down what Sciatica…
Pain management and the opioid crisis
You hear it all the time: we are in the midst of an opioid crisis. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in 2015 an estimated 2-million people suffered from opioid pain-reliever related substance use disorder and more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose. How did so many Americans…
What Will Be Your Legacy Month
Never forget where you came from. That is true at the individual level as well as for a medical practice. And it’s true for those who are seeking information on a medical practice that may be new to them. There is tremendous value in examining the foundation on which a practice was built. Maryland Brain, Spine…
August is Neurosurgery Awareness Month
Neurosurgery has been around for more than a thousand years. The first documented brain surgeon was Abulcasis, who lived from 936 to 1013AD, and wrote many works on neurosurgical diagnosis and treatment, including writings on head injuries and skull fractures, spinal injuries and subdural effusions. Fast forward 800 years, because it wasn’t until 1879 that…
Keep It Moving – Spinal Artificial Disc Replacement
What is arthroplasty? As the long-term effects of aging, injury or arthritis become limiting, the Holy Grail of pain free mobility has proven to be joint replacement (arthroplasty). For millions of people around the world, the benefits of hip, knee and a variety of other joint implantation are well known. However, it has been a…
Technological Advances in Brain Surgery: Celebrating the camera
Neurosurgery is one of the newest surgical specialties. Many of the great surgeons in the 19th and even 20th century felt that brain operations for tumors were not possible. Considering a brain surgery mortality rate of 50 -70%, this is not surprising. Thanks to advances, including the introduction of medications to reduce the severity of…
A pain in the rear: A neurosurgeon’s perspective
Back pain! Almost everyone gets back pain at some part of their life. Deciding when to just take it easy, when to call your doctor or when to Uber to the Emergency Room can be an intimidating but important distinction. Time is on your side An old, wise neurosurgery professor once told me that “no…
Brain Tumor Advances
The treatment of brain tumors has dramatically changed over the past few decades. Although many benign tumors can be treated with surgery alone, it is all too frequent that we encounter malignant tumors that cannot be cured with surgery alone. This is one of the greatest challenges in all of medicine. Diagnosing: The initial goal…