From hosting clinical trials to bringing on new technology, several hospitals have embraced new spine surgery techniques in the last two months:
1. Baystate Medical Center's pain management center in Springfield, Mass. started offering the Veriflex procedure, an outpatient spine procedure for lumbar stenosis. Ashish Malik, MD, director of Baystate's pain medicine fellowship, is the only physician in the area performing the procedure.
2. Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Hospital is testing two motion-preserving alternatives to spinal fusions. The hospital is enrolling patients for trials for Centinel Spine's Smart study and Premia Spine's motion-preservation system, Tops.
3. The Minimally Invasive Brain and Spine Center at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore started using Spineology's OptiLIF procedure. Charles Park, MD, PhD, is trained on the minimally invasive procedure that uses a 1-centimeter incision.
4. Christopher Good, MD, debuted a two-level lumbar disc replacement at Reston (Va.) Hospital Center. Dr. Good, of Reston-based Virginia Spine Institute performed the surgery on a patient who was living with back pain for more than a decade.