Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery

Most people experience back or neck pain at some point. When pain lingers for weeks, months, or even longer, it can keep you from enjoying your life and daily activities.

At Baystate Health, our spine surgeons offer leading-edge therapies and compassionate care to help you find relief. Our primary goal is to decrease your pain and improve your quality of life — whether or not surgery is part of your care.

We work with you and other specialists to find the back or neck pain treatment that’s right for you. When surgery is the best option, we use advanced techniques that help you recover faster with less pain. You can trust our spine surgeons to deliver a personalized care plan focused on your needs and goals.

Why Choose Baystate Health for Spine Surgery?

When you choose Baystate Health for spine surgery, you can expect:

• Individualized, conservative approach: We pride ourselves on our noninvasive, patient-first approach. That means our surgeons only recommend operating when we believe it will bring the best outcome for you.
• Minimally invasive techniques: Minimally invasive surgery is the standard of care for our spine surgeons. These procedures use small incisions and precise surgical tools. The result is a quicker recovery, less pain, lower chance of infection, and faster healing.
• Excellent outcomes: Rest assured your care is in the hands of a team with an excellent track record. Our average length of stay and readmission rates are about half the national averages, and our infection rates fall well below nationwide standards.
• A dedicated surgeon: You form a relationship with your surgeon from your first appointment. Because our team doesn’t train residents and fellows, you can be confident that the surgeon you know is the one performing your operation. This continuity of care allows you to feel more comfort and trust in your doctor’s expertise.
• Team approach: We know surgery isn’t the right option for everyone. That’s why we work with physical therapists and pain management specialists to provide a range of treatments. An entire team is dedicated to helping you achieve the best possible outcome.
• Recognized expertise: Our neuroscience department founded the Spine Institute of New England (SPINE). This multispecialty collaborative enables us to direct patients to the right expert for leading-edge spine care.

Conditions We Treat

Spine surgeons treat a wide variety of conditions causing back and neck pain, including:

• Degenerative disc disease, age-related wear and tear in your spinal discs
• Herniated disc, when the soft inner center of a spinal disc pushes through its outer shell
• Radiculopathy, pinched nerves that lead to pain, numbness, weakness, or tingling
• Sciatica, pain, weakness, or numbness that extends down one leg
• Spinal cord injury, any damage to the spinal cord, the thick bundle of nerves that sends and receives signals between your brain and body
• Spinal stenosis, narrowing in your spinal canal, which can put pressure on your spinal cord and nerves
• Spinal tumor, an irregular growth in or near your spinal cord
• Spondylolisthesis, when two spinal bones are misaligned, with the top bone slipping forward and compressing the nerves between bones

Spine Surgeries We Offer

Our surgeons perform high volumes of multiple types of spine surgeries. This experience helps them provide safe care and achieve better results for patients. Some of the spine surgeries we offer include:

• Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF): Your surgeon removes a damaged disc through an incision in the front of your neck. They replace the disc with a spacer, then fuse (join) the bones above and below it.
• Decompression: Your surgeon makes a small window in your spinal bones and removes whatever is causing compression, usually thick ligaments. This surgery relieves pressure on your nerves and spinal cord.
• Microdiscectomy: Your surgeon removes a herniated disc through a very small passage in your bone.
• Minimally invasive spinal fusion: This procedure connects two spinal bones to improve stability and relieve pain.
• Spinal reconstruction: Our surgeons rebuild the spine after severe traumatic injuries.
• Transforaminal lumber interbody fusion (TLIF): This minimally invasive surgery removes a damaged disc, inserts a spacer (cage), then stabilizes the spine with rods, screws, and a bone graft. Our surgeons were among the region’s early adopters of this complex procedure.