Spine Surgery
Millions of people suffer from the broad range of diseases that can affect the spine. Debilitating pain and impaired function often keep people from working and enjoying normal lives. While spinal conditions and injuries, particularly neck and back pain, are quite common, they can be among the most complex and difficult ailments to treat. This is especially true with patients who have had little improvement with prior spinal surgery or failed medical treatments for such diseases as scoliosis or degenerative disk disease.
Our experienced team of highly-skilled neurosurgeons and staff work together to provide the best care possible. Whether the pain is acute or chronic, we are committed to understanding the problem and will work with each patient to determine the best way to treat it. Patients travel from across the Northeast to have our experts treat problems, including spinal cord and nerve compression, spinal deformities, spinal tumors, neck and back pain, and sciatica.
Spine Surgery at Yale
Our Approach
Our focus is on helping patients overcome their disability, rather than performing surgery or providing physical therapy. We provide comprehensive diagnostic services for patients whose conditions have not been definitively identified, as well as for those who had unsuccessful treatments, including previous surgeries.
Because we are a major referral center for neurosurgical problems of all types and levels of complexity, our patients benefit from our collaborative, interdisciplinary environment that enhances opportunities for advancing care.
Our Services
Our services include:
- Minimally invasive surgery:Advanced, one-day surgical procedures, including vertebroplasty and disk electrocauterization, are available for appropriate candidates. Vertebroplasty relieves pain among some osteoporosis sufferers with collapsed vertebrae. Surgical bone cement is injected into the affected areas bolstering bone growth. Disk electrocauterization involves the use of a needle to shrink disks by burning them.
- Complex surgery:Our Spine Center specializes in this type of surgery, which is reserved for cases in which all other treatment options have been considered. Our surgeons can perform spinal reconstructions for severely deteriorated spines or repair damage from trauma or prior surgeries. Cutting-edge techniques, such as discography, make it possible to track electrical activity within the spine with exceptional precision to localize the site of injuries.
- Support services:Yale New Haven Hospital is a Level I trauma center, fully equipped to handle complex spinal cord injuries. Spine patients who undergo surgery benefit from specially equipped surgical suites. They will recover in the hospital’s Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the only specialized unit of its kind in the region, staffed with experienced neurocritical care nurses. Our team continuously challenges current practice to ensure our programs reflect the most advanced treatment options delivered in a way that enhances the health and comfort of patients.
