Author: Dr. Shim:

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Your Chance of having spine surgery may depend on where you live.

As a practicing Spine Surgeon for more than 20 years,  I have had the great honor of witnessing tremendous changes in my field.  During my residency training in the late 1980’s,  spine surgery was about to begin a tremendous technology change. As we are now in 2015,  Newer,  safer,  faster diagnostic testing such as MRI’s, […]

Is Sitting Bad for my Back?

Lately,  there has been many articles on the bad side effects of sitting too long.  Due to lack of activity,  there is weight gain,  body shape molding,  increased cardiac risk,  and even some studies show higher mortality rates for people who sit for prolonged times on a frequent basis. As a spine specialist, there is […]

10 Causes of Back Pain

If you live long enough,  you will eventually experience back pain.  Depending on the source,  up to 80% of the population will experience a back pain episode that will cause at least temporary disability.    Luckily,  most will recover,  and will get on with their life. There are many potential causes of back pain. 1. […]

Does Everyone Get Spinal Stenosis?

If you live long enough,  you will get spinal stenosis.   Everyone must face the fact that they will age.  It is better than the alternative.  Aging is the process by which the cells in your body die, but the replacement cells do not have the same initially properties of the older cells.  Some scientists […]

Do all Disk herniations Cause Pain?

Surprisingly,  many disk herniations are not associated with pain.  The classic 1990 paper written by Boden et al demonstrated the prevalence of significant lumbar MRI findings in asymptomatic individuals. As a Doctor,  and Spine Specialist,  I know this to be true.  I see it almost on a daily basis in my office.  There is too common […]

Hoffmann Sign and Myelopathy

As Spine Specialists,  we often rely on the so called Hoffmann Sign to identify people who have cervical myelopathy.  The video above demonstrates a positive finding.  Various studies have opined that a positive Hoffmann Sign highly correlates to the presence of cervical myelopathy. It is accepted knowledge that a positive Hoffmann response can also indicate […]

Patient Satisfaction Scores Will Cause Discrimination

As healthcare delivery continues to evolve in the US,  we are seeing efforts by governmental agencies to use patient satisfaction scores to determine compensation.  I think this will become a source of  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST FUTURE PATIENTS. Currently hospitals and physicians are being rated by patients for communication,  caring,  empathy,  etc.  Uniform government developed surveys are […]

Back Pain Again?

We do not have time for Back Pain. But,  unfortunately,  there is a good chance we will all experience back pain sometime in our lives.  The good news is that most episodes of back pain are not serious and resolve over time. But,  physicians are always on the lookout for more serious causes of back […]

Lumbar Discectomy yes, Lumbar Fusion, maybe.

You are in significant pain,  and the Doctors determined that your back and leg pain is caused by a Lumbar Disc Herniation.  Despite all the non surgical treatments such as medications,  therapy,  activity restrictions,  and injections,  you are not getting better and now want a surgical solution.   If your Surgeon recommends a surgery,  you should […]

Events related to Lumbar Disk Herniations

As logical creatures,  humans usually want to associate an event with a cause.  In our current culture,  we want a reason for many of our own medical conditions.  Regarding spine problems,  Physicians know that being over weight,  smoking,  and  genetics have bearing on the incidence of disk problems.  People,  however,  want to associate a disk […]

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