Spine

Artificial intelligence could help improve the efficiencies and outcomes of spine surgery while reversing the field's ''unsustainable" trajectory of rising costs in the U.S., according to a paper published Jan. 6 in the Global Spine Journal.

Here are six spine and neurosurgeons making headlines this week.

Antoine Tohmeh, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare, is pioneering three-level lateral fusions using the prone transpsoas surgery method, according to the Spokane Journal of Business.

Neurosurgeon Mahesh Karandikar, MD, PhD, recently joined McLaren Flint (Mich.), a 278-bed hospital as part of Grand Blanc, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care, reports Swartz Creek View.

Black patients had significantly worse outcomes than white patients after lumbar spinal fusion, according to a study published in Spine.

Keith Bridwell, MD, and Munish Gupta, MD, of St. Louis-based Washington University School of Medicine, recently published a fourth edition textbook on spine surgery.

Eleven spine specialists discuss advances in pain management and how it can improve outcomes in spine surgery.

Neurosurgeon John Cowan, MD, on Jan. 13 entered the race for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Rome News-Tribune reports. 

William Tobler, MD, performed the first single-position lateral interbody fusion in an ASC at Cincinnati-based Mayfield Spine Surgery Center, using Medtronic devices.

Radiologist Rahul Desai, MD, will present his paper on intradiscal regenerative cell therapy for spinal disorders at the fifth annual Interventional Orthopedics Foundation conference in Denver from Feb. 12 to 14.