Jeffrey R. Carlson, MD, MBA, CPE, FAAOS In the old days (a mere 10-15 years ago), when I performed a multi-level spine fusion on a patient, it was considered a really big deal by the insurance company and required an inpatient hospital stay of at least two or three days, maybe more. Now, I perform… Read more »
Mark W. McFarland, DO Doesn’t everyone have curves in their spine? Absolutely. A normal spine has several shallow alternating curves, which helps it to balance the weight of the head, and evenly distribute the weight of the body in alignment from the shoulders to the hips, knees and feet. What is Kyphosis? This medical term… Read more »
Jeffrey R. Carlson, MD, CPE (Originally published in Hampton Roads Physicians’ Magazine) When muscles don’t get enough blood flow due to obstructed arteries, cramping pain can result simply from walking or using one’s arms. Vascular claudication (VC) is a condition typically caused by peripheral artery disease and is a debilitating problem that worsens over time…. Read more »
Mark W. McFarland, DO What happens to the patient from the scene of the accident, during transport to the hospital and after they make it to the hospital trauma unit? In this article, I’ll talk about treatment for this type of cervical fracture and how we start to put the pieces back together for the… Read more »
Mark W. McFarland, DO In part one of this article series, we discussed what a cervical dislocation fracture is, how it can happen and exactly how serious of an injury it can be. In part two, I’d like to discuss the symptoms of a cervical dislocation fracture and how a tiny distance can make a… Read more »
Mark W. McFarland, MD One of the first things you learn in medical school is that human bones can withstand lots of punishment, but they also can break in a lot of different ways. Spinal bones (vertebrae) tend to break in specific ways, and some can be more serious than others. In this article, I’m… Read more »
Jeffrey R. Carlson, MD The title of this article is a question that was asked recently by a patient over our webchat line that I thought would make a fantastic topic for discussion. I often hear this complaint from my patients as I am a spine surgeon and the requirements for spine surgery anesthesia are… Read more »
Mark W. McFarland, DO I’m certain that there isn’t one of us who hasn’t had neck pain at some point in their life – we’ve slept funny and woke up with a “crick” in our neck or we painted the ceiling, or we did something that made our neck hurt. Usually, with a little TLC,… Read more »
Cody Leeworthy PT, DPT Having a spine surgery used to be considered one of the scariest major surgeries a patient could have. Nowadays, with the skill of OSC spine surgeons, incredible advancements in surgical technique and pain management, OSC patients can go into our ambulatory surgery center in Newport News, VA and walk out several… Read more »
Jeffrey R. Carlson, MD As surgery advances and becomes more commonplace, more patients will have spinal hardware (i.e., screws, rods, plates) used to stabilize the bones of their spines. The hardware has great advantages over the older techniques of providing spine stability with an external brace. This difference can be equated to having surgery for… Read more »