Carpal Tunnel Release
July 17, 2019Spinal Tumors & Metastatic Cancer of the Bone
July 18, 2019
Poor outcomes frequently occur due to lack of
attention to details. What do I mean by
that? Many times, I see that my peers
are treating imaging studies (e.g. MRIs) and not the patient. Sometimes, the patient’s complaint has
nothing to do with an abnormality on an MRI. It is not always obvious what the source of
pain or complaints are. For example, did
you know that hip pain has multiple etiologies and is not always caused by a
hip problem. SI joint problems and lower
back problems are other causes of hip pain that are often missed. Similarly, knee pain can be caused by other
problems such as hip arthritis or a pinched nerve in the back.
Obviously, doing surgery for an asymptomatic disk
problem is not going to work. Doing the
wrong surgery is a common cause of poor outcome.
Likewise, doing a fusion surgery on someone with severe vitamin D deficiency will fail. If a spinal instability is not adequately bio-mechanically stabilized, the fusion will not heal, and the fixation will fail (another cause of failed fusion surgery).