Blog

Why stay out of the Spinal Canal? I am often asked... Why stay out of the spinal canal ?  I’ve had a 100% endoscopic spine practice for over 23 years and have performed over ten thousand procedures on all areas of the spine from C2-3 to the coccyx. In the 10 years...

How did I get started? Conclusion“Can Endoscopic Spine Surgery be considered a specialty ?” When I began to do endoscopic spine surgery in the late 90’s, I treated painful conditions that could be seen on the MRI such as disc herniations and stenosis. The big...

How did I get started? Part Three  Your perspective on a problem changes as your tools change. -  Tony Mork I didn’t think that there was enough preop testing to really know where the pain was coming from.   Three things changed when I operated on the back and...

How did I get started? Part TwoSo what did I do ? “Are fusions really necessary for so many patients with back pain? ” The spine surgeons that I worked with were some of the best in the world, but the longer I worked in that practice, the more I became motivated to...

How did I get started? Part One“I was a sports surgeon for my first 16 years of practice” My first 16 years of orthopedic practice, which began in the early 80’s, was devoted to sports medicine and joint replacement in Long Beach, California. Both of these specialties...

Transition your practice to curing pain instead of managing it.I have lots of friends who are pain management doctors and I hear one common frustration. They are tired of being a “prescription practice”.  This is a two-pronged problem.  One, a “prescription practice”...

Be a Trailblazer in the IndustryWhether you just started your practice or have been around a long time, patients love to see one thing. They want to see that you are doing something NEW.  This creates a sense of forward motion that people are attracted to. Your...

Why not you, why not now?The fact is that endoscopic spine surgery is a movement that is gaining momentum and your patients are going to start demanding it. Why not be ready when they do? This is not some fad. Endoscopy and arthroscopy are the mainstays of treatment...

What is the most common lumbar MRI finding that correlates with an Annular Tear ?In the very early days of MRI use to evaluate the lumbar spine, there were some findings that were thought to strongly correlate with low back pain. One such finding was the High...