Dr. Kevin Stevenson, spine surgeon at Piedmont Orthopaedic Complex, partnered recently with The Brickyard at Riverside golf club and gave a presentation on common golf injuries, how to understand golf motions and how they apply to spine, and also how to prevent some of these common injuries. Attendees were also educated about Piedmont Orthopaedic’s golf assessment program that is offered through our athetic training and rehab department.
Getting Back to Golf
Getting Back to Golf
About 10 % of all herniated discs call for surgery. However, a new endoscopic spine surgery being performed at Piedmont Orthopaedic Complex allows you as a patient to be able to walk home the same day and be pain-free after a couple of weeks enabling you to live your life actively again.
- No general anesthesia
- Outpatient treatment without hospital stay
- No injury of muscles and connective tissue
- In general no postoperative pain or muscle pain
- No scarring
- Very low risk of infections
- Very short recovery time
During the surgical operation - which lasts approximately one hour - the patient is analgosedated. This means that the pain is numbed (analgesia), and the patient is sedated (sedation). Compared to general anaesthesia, the patient is able to react immediately to possible pain, meaning nerve damage is almost impossible.
Although the patient is awake and responsive during the whole surgical operation, memory capacity is limited. As a result, the procedure is also suitable for patients with fear of surgery.
Thanks to improvements in anaesthesia, analgesia is well tolerated, and can even be used on elderly patients, or patients with cardiovascular problems. For elderly patients anesthesists rely on Remifentanilhydrochlorid (active pharmaceutical ingredient/Abbr. AP of Ultiva®) as it is decomposed by the tissue rather than by the liver and kidneys.
The surgeon removes only leaked íntervertebral disc material, and does not injure surrounding tissue. Therefore stability of the spinal column is maintained, and patients can generally leave the hospital on the same day.
When operating according to this method, surgeons avoid wide and deep cuts. Instead, surrounding tissue is dilated step by step, and the muscles and connective tissue surrounding the spinal column are protected. The treatment is “bloodless”. Scarring, wound and muscle pain is very rare, and the risk of infection is reduced considerably.
US research hospital “The Cleveland Clinic Foundation” stated that “a patient who has been treated according to the endoscopic method will be free of pain within three to six weeks, whereas the recovery period for the conventional method is estimated at three to six months.”
The success rate of the TESSYS® method is proven to lie around 90%. Generally, the number of patients who have to be re-operated on is relatively small at only 5%-6%, this compares favourably to patients previously operated on using another method where approximately 10% to 12% require another operation.
Up to 85% of all people have lower back pain at some point in life. Dealing with back pain can be a frustrating experience, made even more challenging when trying to identify the correct pain generator.
low back pain
A commonly overlooked cause of lower back pain may be the Sacroiliac (SI) joint. The SI joint can be responsible for up to 25% of lower back pain. New diagnostic and therapeutic procedures have recently become available which you may find of value.
Potential causes of SI joint dysfunction may include degenerative disease, history of trauma, failed back surgery and pregnancy/childbirth. Recent clinical publications report that 43% of all post-lumbar and lumbosacral fusion patients may have SI joint dysfunction.
SI joint symptoms often limit self-supporting daily activities, work, social and recreational pursuits. Lack of activity can lead to obesity, depression and general physical deterioration.
If you are experiencing lower back pain, we encourage you to contact our office for an appointment to see if the SI joint may be your pain generator. We would be pleased to discuss how the SI joint causes lower back pain and new treatment options including: non-operative therapy, and a new minimally invasive procedure.
