Spine

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco has opened an eight-bed Children’s Neuroscience Specialty Unit, expanding its inpatient capacity for children with neurologic and neurosurgical conditions. The unit is the hospital’s first inpatient expansion since it opened in 2015. It provides…

A patient sees a primary care physician for back pain, then a physical therapist, then a pain specialist, perhaps a chiropractor, perhaps another pain specialist. There may be injections, an ablation, new imaging and weeks between appointments. Eventually, the patient…

Legal pressure on orthopedic and spine providers came from multiple directions in the second quarter, spanning payer fraud suits, a kickback guilty plea and a device liability claim.  Here are five orthopedic lawsuits to know from second-quarter 2026:

Incomplete decompression, recurrent disc herniation and retained disc fragment are among the most common causes of failed lumbar spine surgery, according to a July 20 study published in Cureus. Here are 10 notes on the study:

Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC School of Medicine has named Daniel Prevedello, MD, chair of its department of neurosurgery. He will begin the role in October. Dr. Prevedello joins UNC from The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, where he…

CMS has proposed cutting payment for some of the most common spine procedures performed in ASCs. Four spine surgeons discuss how the cuts, if finalized, would reshape their site-of-service decisions. Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed…

A group of physician lawmakers has introduced the Patients First Act, which revamps the Medicare physician fee schedule, expands access to care and improves incentives for independent practices.  Here are eight notes on the new legislation, according to a July…

The FDA has classified a recall of spinal anesthesia kits from B. Braun Medical as Class I, the agency’s most serious designation, according to a July 17 Citeline report. The recalled kits contain bupivacaine hydrochloride in dextrose injection, a prescription…

When Daniel Riew, MD, began implanting artificial cervical discs in 2002, surgeons were waiting for answers to three questions. Would the operation work as well as fusion? Would the implant last? And could preserving motion prevent the levels above and…

The next major failure in spine care may not begin in the operating room. It could begin when a patient in a smaller market cannot find a surgeon nearby. It could deepen when an insurer delays imaging, therapy or an…