spine back

The modern world of orthopedics consists of hyperspecialists who focus on treating injured athletes based on their individual broken and painful parts. So the knee doctor treats the athlete with knee pain, the foot and ankle doctor treats the athlete with foot pain, and the spine doctor treats the athlete with back pain. At the … Continued

Back pain and a tight ITB often go hand in hand…at least that’s our experience with about two-thirds of the patients we examine with back pain. In these cases, we find it best to treat not just the back problem but also the ITB. Why? We’ll explain in a moment, but first, let’s define the … Continued

Today we’re seeing more and more orthopedic surgeons fusing multiple back bones at once. Instead of a one-level lumbar fusion, which fuses two bones together, they’re doing two or three levels, which fuses three or four bones together. We probably don’t have to state the obvious here, but the more levels that are permanently joined … Continued

You might not be able to imagine your doctor as a patient, but doctors sometimes find themselves on the other side of the stethoscope. Our own Dr. Centeno is a good example of a doctor turned patient when it comes to diagnosing and treating degenerative spondylolisthesis. A degenerative condition, without intervention, will only worsen over … Continued

Epidural steroid injections are extremely common treatments provided for irritated or inflamed spinal nerves. These irritated nerves can cause pain in the area of the nerve in the back or neck or pain anywhere along the nerve branch in areas that nerve supplies, such as the knee, shoulder, hip, and so on. They might seem … Continued

Lumbar Fusion Surgery often Results in Adjacent Segment Disease Lumbar surgery is often recommended for low back pain, leg pain, and lumbar disc herniations that are unresponsive to conservative therapy. One surgery that is commonly performed is lumbar fusion, which often results in adjacent segment disease (ASD). ASD occurs when the discs and facets above … Continued

Leg muscle wasting is common with aging. If you’re over 60 and relatively sedentary, you may have started to notice thinning legs or even a flatter, less firm bottom; this is a sign of muscle wasting. While we might be inclined to attribute this to a less active lifestyle or lack of regular exercise, and … Continued

What if we told you that back pain that’s making you miserable right now isn’t real? What if we told you your mind just thinks your back hurts, and all you have to do is, well, just learn how to think it away? That’s what one trend coursing through physical therapy circles is telling us—that … Continued

You don’t have to go far to find a clinic offering stem cell treatments these days (they’re popping up everywhere), and many of them are offering these orthobiologics therapies for the low back. While finding them is easy, determining if these stem cell treatments are legitimate can be very difficult. To help you weed through … Continued

We often see patients seeking a nonsurgical alternative to a lumbar fusion. We also see many patients trying to save their knee and looking for a nonsurgical solution to a knee replacement. Recently, we saw a patient seeking both. After being told she needed bilateral knee replacements, a low-back MRI led her doctor to also … Continued