Spine

Tim Scannell, former president and COO of Stryker, died Sept. 26 after a battle with brain cancer, according to a memorial page by the National Brain Tumor Society. Mr. Scannell spent 32 years at Stryker, joining the medical device company…

For years, spine surgery’s approach to risk prediction largely revolved around one question: Which patients are most likely to have a complication? Rafael De la Garza Ramos, MD, thinks the harder question is becoming more important. Which patients are actually…

Jonathan Hobbs, MD, a neurosurgeon at Chesterton, Ind.-based Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute, performed what the practice says is the nation’s first fully customized posterior spinal fusion: a two-level lumbar interbody fusion combining patient-specific interbody cages and rods. The procedure…

Expandable cages address an obvious challenge in minimally invasive spine surgery: How do surgeons place a device capable of restoring disc height through an increasingly small surgical corridor? But Lali Sekhon, MD, PhD, a spine neurosurgeon at Reno (Nev.) Orthopedic…

Deeptee Jain, MD, knows what every payer she works with pays her for every procedure she performs. She wishes she didn’t have to. Dr. Jain trained to become a spine surgeon, not to study payer contracts, collections or practice overhead.…

When Ki-Eun Chang, MD, arrived at the military hospital where he now practices, there was no endoscopic spine equipment. He was also working within a government purchasing process that he says tends to be “kind of slow on getting stuff.”…

Longevity medicine has built an industry around helping people live longer without losing the ability to live well. Robert Masson, MD, president and neurological surgeon at the Orlando, Fla.-based Masson Spine Institute, thinks spine surgeons belong in that conversation. Not…

North American Spine Society released a patient safety position statement outlining education, training and competency principles for physicians performing spine interventions. The statement was developed after a review of current training pathways and discussions with leadership from surgical and nonsurgical…

Before some patients meet a spine surgeon, they have already watched the operation. They have seen a laminectomy demonstrated on TikTok, watched surgical instruments at work and heard physicians explain why the operation they thought they needed may not be…

Researchers at New York City-based Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery identified stem cells that may contribute to ligament overgrowth in lumbar spinal stenosis, according to a study published Sept. 7 in Cell. Researchers found more of the…