Problems related to Spine like neck and back pain are one of the most common causes for hospital visit and loss of work time. Spine problems are on the rise due to various reasons including sedentary lifestyle, increased stress, increasing desk jobs, lack of exercises and physical activity, obesity etc. Spine surgeon will evaluate the cause and origin of pain and advice appropriate treatment strategies like medications, physical therapy and rehabilitation, pain injections or interventions and sometimes surgery.

Spine problems may arise due to various causes like

• Trauma
• Degenerative disease
• Infection
• Tumors
• Congenital
• Idiopathic

Common problems treated are:

Trauma:

• Spine fractures
• Dislocations
• Listhesis
• Spinal cord injury
• Traumatic disc prolapsed

Degerative disease:

• Disc prolapse
• Spondylolisthesis
• Scoliosis
• Facet arthropathy
• Canal stenosis
• Ossified ligaments

Infection:

• Epidural abcess
• Spondylodiscitis
• Intradural abcess

Tumors:

• Vertebral body tumors
• Tumors arising around the spine
• Metastatic spine tumors
• Intradural tumors – Meningioma, Schwannoma etc
• Intramedullary tumors – Ependymoma, astrocytoma, lipoma, dermoid cyst etc

Congenital:

• Meningocoele
• Meningomeyelocoele
• Split cord malformations
• Spina bifida
• Lipomeningomyelocoele
• Tethered cord syndrome
• Congenital scoliosis
• Congenital vertebral anomalies
• Congenital Atlanto-axial dislocation
• Syringomyelia

Idiopathic

• Scoliosis
• Kyphosis

Vascular

• Spinal AV malformation
• Spinal cavernoma
• Spinal dural AV fistula

Surgeries performed

• Atlanto-axial fixation
• Occipito-cervical fusion
• Subaxial cervical spine decompression/ fusion
• Endoscopic discectomy
• Anterior cervical discectomy/ corpectomy and fusion
• Cervical laminoforaminotomy
• Minimally invasive microdiscectomy
• Minimally invasive spine fusion
• TLIF, PLIF, OLIF
• Endoscopic spinal fusion
• Spine fixation
• Spine tumor excision (open and minimally invasive)
• Deformity correction
• Transthoracic spine surgery
• Lateral extracavitory approach
• Thoracic discectomy
• Vertebroplasty/ Kyphoplasty
• Sacroiliac joint fusion
• Spinal AVM excision
• Ligation of AVF
• Alcohol injection/ sclerotherapy

Pain interventions:

• Transforaminal nerve blocks
• Epidural steroid
• Epidural blood patch
• Trigeminal nerve block
• Facet joint injections
• Sacroiliac joint injections

There are many myths related to spine surgery - like spine surgeries are never successful, one will not be able to walk after surgery or one always needs fixation and long surgeries.

But with advancing care and technology, surgeries and safe and done with utmost precision. Many surgeries are done with small incisions and keyhole approaches with help of endoscope and microscope so as to minimize pain, muscle injury, bony injury and help in faster recovery and getting back to healthy life.