What is The Swedish Neuroscience Institute Spine Program?

What we’ve been able to accomplish at Swedish Neuroscience Institute is, within our Spine Program, we have sub specialization. So we have physicians who are dedicated to specific areas of spine care. Some of us primarily focus on degenerative conditions, others on scoliosis and deformity conditions, others on spinal tumors, others on non-operative treatments for spine care. When a patient comes in to see us having back pain they should not see the surgeon first. And surgery should not be the first line of treatment; since surgery is the most invasive, can have the highest complication rate and having the longest recovery time too. Making the correct assessment is crucial in making the correct treatment plan. It is more of a surgical scenario or it is something that can be treated mainly with rehabilitation; possible interventional procedures to help the patient recover. Right now we’re seeing a bit of a trend around the country to do major deformity operations for back pain. It doesn’t work. We have to have a deformity for deformity surgery to be effective. Pain is not a reason to do deformity surgery. Once we feel that a patient is a candidate for surgery we spend a considerable amount of time talking about the surgery, going through it, we’ve got models that we use. And we describe in detail – what we’re going to do, the risks, complications, the benefits, what the recovery is like. And then we have a lot of online material. They can look. They can see videos. They can see animations. And then they come back and they’ll have more questions or concerns. And I think that gives them a chance to fully comprehend what they’re getting involved in. Education in our program is number one. By far. And the whole idea is that we believe it is your decision making and we never think a patient should be arbitrarily told that they need an operation. We feel strongly that the decisions need to be made in the context of the person’s life. So I think it’s for the patient’s benefit that we have this comprehensive spine program involving basically all the spine specialists, not just the surgeons, to serve our patients. We work as a team. And we work closely in helping to determine what is the problem. What is the cause of their neck or back pain? And we’re trying to provide an improvement in their function and an improvement in their pain and an improvement in their daily lives. At the Spine Program at Swedish Neuroscience Institute we provide an individualized program that partners directly with the patient and their primary care provider to deliver the utmost in compassionate care and successful outcomes for treatment of their conditions.