Definition

A subspecialty of Orthopaedic Surgery involving Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of conditions of the spine.

Purpose

To improve pain, function and quality of life in carefully selected patients with disorders of the spine.

To obtain consistently safe and reproducibly good or excellent surgical outcomes.

What do spine surgeons do?

• Accurate diagnosis through clinical assessment and, when necessary, imaging (X-ray, MRI, CT scan, bone scan).
• Outline treatment options
• Discuss surgical treatment where applicable.


Surgical treatment is usually in the nature of

• Decompression (to relieve pressure on the spinal nerves or spinal cord)
• Stabilisation (to relieve pressure on the spinal nerves or spinal cord or improve back/neck pain).
• Correction of deformity (scoliosis, kyphosis).
• Motion sparing surgery (disc replacement)


Main Operations

• Anterior Cervical Decompression & Fusion
• Lumbar Microdiscectomy
• Decompression and/or Fusion for Spinal Stenosis
• Lumbar Fusion
• Spondylolisthesis Decompression/Fusion

 

Developments

Spine surgery has been one of the most progressive subspecialties in medicine over the last 25 years.

Particular advances relate to

• Imaging
• Methods of stabilisation
• Disc replacement
• Biologics