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Comprehensive Spine Center: Conditions & Treatments

At the UCI Health Comprehensive Spine Center, we have a team of highly trained physicians and surgeons with special expertise in diagnosing and treating a wide range of conditions that contribute to back pain and discomfort.

These specialists in neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, neurology, physiatry, anesthesiology, pain medicine, physical medicine and other specialties work in concert to design the most effective treatment plan for each patient.

Conditions

Our team treats all spine conditions and diseases, including:
  • Adult and pediatric deformities
  • Scoliosis
  • Arthritis
  • Spinal stenosis
  • Degenerative disc disease
  • Spinal tumors
  • Failed back syndrome
  • Spine trauma
  • Fractures
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Herniated discs
  • Spinal infections
  • Kyphosis
  • Neck and lower back pain
  • Spondylolisthesis
  • Spondylosis
  • Sciatica

Treatments

We offer a full range of surgical and nonsurgical treatments for adult and pediatric patients suffering from back pain and spinal disorders.

Nonsurgical treatment options

Non-surgical treatments are often effective. Most back pain improves with rest, pain relief, massage and hot or cold therapy. If the pain does not improve, other non-surgical treatment options may include: 

  • Acupuncture
  • Drug therapy
  • Electrical stimulation
  • Ergonomic training
  • Hot or cold therapy and massage
  • Physical therapy
  • Spinal injections
  • Therapeutic exercise

Minimally invasive surgery

For patients who have tried non-surgical methods to alleviate back or neck problems without success, minimally invasive surgical techniques are available to correct many spine disorders. 

Minimally invasive surgery, including robot-assisted spinal surgery, benefits patients by reducing hospitalization time, decreasing pain and speeding recovery. Microsurgical advances also minimize the impact of surgery on nearby muscles and ligaments. 

We also offer numerous leading-edge techniques that have been shown to preserve motion, reduce recovery time and reduce re-operations compared to traditional anterior cervical surgical techniques. 

Among the many procedures performed by our spine specialists include: 

  • Cervical foraminotomy
  • Corpectomy
  • Decompressive laminectomy
  • Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF)
  • Laminectomy
  • Microdiscectomy
  • Percutaneous fusions
  • Spinal fracture repair
  • Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF)
  • Tumor surgery
  • Vertebroplasty

Other surgical treatment options include:

  • Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion
  • Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF)
  • Artificial disc replacement
  • Cervical laminoplasty
  • Complex spinal reconstruction
  • Kyphoplasty
  • Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF)
  • Scoliosis surgery
  • Spondylolisthesis surgery
  • X-stop procedure/Vertiflex

Robot-assisted spine surgery

UCI Health physicians performed the first robot-assisted minimally invasive spine surgery on the West Coast using SpineAssist®, an advanced robotic navigational tool.

SpineAssist is designed to guide the surgeon, with help from a robotic arm, in placing screw implants to stabilize the spine.

A 2010 study in the journal Spine showed that the robotic guidance system can increase the accuracy of spinal implants by as much as 98.3 percent and significantly lower the rates of misplaced screws and subsequent neurological problems.

SpineAssist has two components:

  • A computerized workstation that allows the surgeon to use images of a patient’s damaged spine to develop a three-dimensional surgical blueprint for the procedure and
  • A robotic arm positioned on the spine that guides the surgeon to predetermined points for optimal placement of the implants, particularly in minimally invasive procedures where there is a limited view of the surgical field.

SpineAssist, which can be used for traditional open surgeries, also lessens radiation exposure for the patient, surgeon and entire operating-room team.

Traditionally, dozens of X-rays must be taken during a procedure to ensure that each screw is properly located and doesn’t impinge on nerves or breach the spinal canal. Since the robot is programmed based on scans taken before the operation, the physician can work more quickly, with greater accuracy and fewer X-ray fluoroscope images during the procedure.

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