By Dr. Alfred O. Bonati, MD, Founder and Chief Orthopaedic Surgeon, The Bonati Spine Institute, August 2017 Sciatica pain is associated with joints of the sacroiliac and lumbar spine and just the fact that a woman is carrying the extra weight for nine months will produce pressure on the most fragile nerves at L4/L5 or L5/S1. When that pain happens, usually [...]
A study funded by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurosurgery is providing new evidence to support the increased use of minimally invasive spine surgery for degenerative spine conditions. The group of neurosurgeons found that normal spinal anatomy remains intact when using a minimally invasive surgical approach to alleviate pain caused [...]
Most of us get back pain at some point in our lives. It may be due to a sports-related injury, an accident, or a congenital condition such as scoliosis. But most of the time, upper or lower back pain develops during the course of day-to-day life. Repetitive activities at work or home, such as sitting [...]
Fibromyalgia affects more than 5 million people in the United States each year. For years it has been under diagnosed and under treated. Recent research now suggests that changes in the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and sensory nerves) may be responsible. Fibromyalgia is called the “invisible disease” and some doctors don’t even acknowledge [...]
https://youtu.be/obGUoaSs9jw?list=PLJvQixjXBMt81Exddoh2A4sOGdLQdTtoq After surgeons at other facilities wanted to just do exploratory surgery because they could not figure out what her diagnosis was, Desiree was ready to give up. She wanted a solution, not just a search effort. Luckily, after some persistence from her father, she discovered The Bonati Spine Institute. Watch Desiree's story above and [...]
This article is excerpted from Spine-Health.com's original article titled, Chronic Pain and Insomnia: Breaking the Cycle written by William W. Deardorff, PhD, ABPP on 12/12/2016. Patients suffering from chronic pain often find their problems are compounded by insomnia and sleeping disorders. Among those with chronic pain, an estimated 50% to 80% have ongoing sleep difficulties.1 Back pain [...]
When the nerves that extend from your brain through your spinal cord to the rest of your body become pinched, your body will send out pain signals to tell you that something is wrong. A pinched nerve may become compressed as a result of pressure by the surrounding bones, cartilage, muscles, tendons or scar tissue. [...]
Read eight facts on the cost of back pain sourced from the following publications: The World Health Organization, The American Academy of Pain Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, The National Institute of Health, The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 117 studies in 50 countries find that low back pain comprises 1/3 of work related [...]
We mention often at the Bonati Spine Institute that fusions fail over 50% of the time. Because of this we recommend avoiding fusions if at all possible. Below is an example of one study explaining why a patient may want to think twice when considering a fusion procedure. Burlington, Massachusetts based Lahey Hospital and Medical Center [...]
A new study appearing in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) links the use of opioid pain relievers (prescription medications such as Percocet, Hydrocodone, OxyContin and Vicodin) to less improvement and higher levels of dissatisfaction following spine surgery. In this study, 326 out of 583 (56 percent) patients reported some degree of opioid use prior to elective lumbar, [...]
