Spine

Advances in minimally invasive techniques, robotic technology, motion-preserving procedures and complex spinal reconstruction are transforming spine care. Across the country, orthopedic spine surgeons are driving those advances by improving patient outcomes, advancing clinical research and training the next generation of…

L&K Spine recently announced the successful completion of the first global four-level cervical reconstruction using its newly launched BluEx-C Cervical Expandable Cage. The landmark procedure was performed on July 20 by Christopher Chittum, MD, a neurosurgeon at Spartanburg Medical Center…

A patient with chronic back pain who lands in the wrong office at the wrong moment can walk out scheduled for a surgery they never needed. Designing that failure mode out of the system is the premise behind the spine…

Patient-reported outcomes were once a research exercise, the kind of data a spine program collected for a registry or a journal submission and rarely looked at again. That era is over. PROMs now sit directly on the line between a…

An early multicenter study evaluated Eminent Spine’s FDA 510(k)-cleared 3D-printed titanium pedicle screw in 33 patients undergoing spinal procedures. The study included patients treated from July 2025 to the present for conditions including loose pedicle screws, pseudoarthrosis, cervical-thoracic kyphosis, thoraco-lumbar…

The first lumbar artificial disc replacement at DISC’s newest surgery center did not feel like a first to Philip Saville, MD. He had already performed the procedure in outpatient settings. The operation itself was familiar. What mattered was everything built…

Boston Scientific and Stryker have reached an agreement in principle to settle a patent dispute involving technology used in basivertebral nerve ablation procedures for chronic vertebrogenic low back pain, according to new court documents.  The two medtech companies notified the…

The reputation of spine surgery was built in another era. Patients still imagine a long incision down the back, muscles stripped from the spine and months spent recovering in a brace. For decades, that fear was not irrational. Some fusion…

Washington lawmakers advanced the most significant Medicare Advantage prior authorization reform in years this week. But as Congress moves to curb delays and denials for beneficiaries enrolled in private Medicare plans, CMS is simultaneously expanding prior authorization in traditional Medicare…

Josephine Coury Whalley, MD, is beginning her spine surgery career with more technological guidance than any previous generation received. Software can help plan an operation before the incision. Navigation can track instruments in three dimensions. Robotics can guide implants along…