Spine

Here are seven things for spine surgeons to know for Thursday, April 4, 2013.

Seven spine surgeons weigh in on how the newly-enacted medical device excise tax will impact the field of spinal surgery. The tax took effect Jan. 1 to fund reforms from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

Kevin Foley, MD, a board-certified neurosurgeon, will present DiscGenics' recent findings in a lecture titled "Initial In Vivo Efficacy of a Novel Injectable Cellular Therapy for Degenerative Disc Disease" at the annual Lumbar Research Society meeting.

Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines (Iowa) has been named a Blue Distinction Center in the areas of spinal surgery and knee and hip replacement by BlueCross and BlueShield, according to a Business Record report.

Spine surgeons have seen reimbursements drop over the past few years, and will likely continue to experience downward pressure in the future. Medicare recently announced a 2 percent reimbursement reduction as part of sequestration spending cuts as well. Here are…

A study recently published in Spine examined the reoperation rate for patients undergoing spine surgery for disc herniation.

Laser Spine Institute, based in Tampa, Fla., has announced a partnership with the non-profit organization Planetree.

Douglas Smith, MD, founder of Musculoskeletal Imaging Consultants, discusses what it takes to incorporate weight-bearing MRI into spine practices.

In a recent retrospective study published in Spine, researchers analyzed the rate of infection seen in vertebral fusion patients that received irradiated cancellous allograft or iliac crest bone autograft.

A study published in Spine randomly selected 5 percent of Medicare beneficiaries that had undergone decompression surgery for spinal stenosis and analyzed readmission rates.