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by Dr. Shim
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What is Radiculopathy?

Often times,  physicians use a lot of terms freely with patients,  assuming the patients know what the word means.  Radiculopathy is one of those terms.  In the most simplest terms,  it does mean a pinched nerve in the spine.   It is important to know that radiculopathy really means pinching of the nerves as the […]

by Dr. Shim
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Pinched Nerve

Think you have a pinched nerve? A pinched nerve is a common experience for most people over the age of 35.  Usually, it is associated with pain,  burning, or a tingling sensation to either the arms or legs.   While the pinching can occur out the spine, in conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, most […]

by Dr. Shim
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What is Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery?

Here in Tampa,  we are in a media war over Spine Surgery Services.  It has become a very competitive business,  with many Centers or Institutes deploying expensive marketing teams touting expertise in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery.  It does sound great.  But what does Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery mean? About 30 years ago,  spine surgery was […]

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Does Lumbar Spondylolisthesis and Stenosis need Fusion?

Conventional wisdom says  that patients with known spinal stenosis,  and associated spondylolisthesis should have fusion if having decompression surgery.  The often quoted 1991 paper from Herkowitz and Kurz identified a clinical advantage to perform lumbar fusion for patients undergoing laminectomy for spondylolisthesis with lumbar stenosis. Much research has been geared towards the types of fusions that would give […]

by Dr. Shim
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The Chance of Lumbar Discectomy Reoperation

In general appropriate properly selected patients do well with lumbar discectomy surgery.  By definition,  a properly selected patient is one who has a well defined disk herniation on diagnostic testing,  with corresponding physical examination findings of neurotension  (straight leg raise findings), and identified loss of sensation,  reflex changes and/or weakness that follows a specific nerve […]

by 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, […]