Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center

Memorial Hermann Orthopedic Center

Spine Program

Back pain is a painful problem for more than 20 percent of Americans. When chronic pain does not respond to medication and therapy, The Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center Spine Program can help with additional treatment options.

Patients are treated in new state-of-the-art facilities equipped with the latest tools and dynamic imaging systems. The Spine Program treats patients with back pain resulting from:

• Trauma
• Degenerative disc disease
• Deformity, including kyphosis and scoliosis
• Osteoporosis and related stress fractures

More than a thousand spine surgeries are performed annually. Surgeries include:

• Lumbar fusion
• Lumbar microdiskectomy
• Anterior cervical spine fusion
• Scoliosis surgery
• Kyphoplasty
• Thermal neucleoplasty
• Micro-endoscopic diskectomy as well as the most recent FDA-approved options:
• Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF)
• Disk replacement surgery

The Spine Program is staffed by top faculty from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. At the Center, Rex Marco, M.D., Vivek Kushwaha, M.D., and colleagues specialize in treatment of traumatic injury to the spine, and chronic back and neck pain. They consistently offer new techniques and methods to minimize trauma and shorten rehabilitation time, including:

Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF) back surgery

Performing TLIF from a single incision in the back, the spine is approached from the side, reducing nerve exposure. Technically more difficult than the traditional 360-degree, multi-incision approach, the benefits of TLIF include:

• Reduced trauma
• Less blood loss
• Reduced surgical time (by more than half)
• Shorter hospital stays
• Less costly care
• Higher rates of vertebrae fusion
• Fewer complications
  

A pioneer in the TLIF procedure, Dr. Kushwaha has done more than 200 such surgeries since its approval by the FDA in 2002. He and Dr. Marco are among only a handful of Houston spine surgeons proficient in the technique.

During TLIF, damaged vertebral bone is removed, allowing access to the disk. The disk is then replaced by a spacer and bone graft material.

Rods are installed to support the spine during healing. In the case of revision spine surgeries, TLIF allows surgeons to avoid scar tissue from previous operations.

Disk Replacement

Approved by the FDA in October 2004, artificial disk replacements have been used in Europe for more than a decade. Spine Program surgeons offer this leading-edge surgery for qualifying patients with degenerative disk disease.

While traditional lumbar fusion and TLIF reduce or eliminate pain, both immobilize the spine at the site of the fusion.