Comprehensive Spine Center

Back pain can often be debilitating and is one of the most common reasons people seek medical care or miss work. Back or spine surgery is often a solution, but when previous surgeries have not provided needed relief, patients may lose complete hope of living pain-free again. However, even when previous spine surgeries have not helped, there are still options available.

The UofL Physicians – Comprehensive Spine Center at UofL Health – Medical Center Northeast is part of UofL Physicians – Neurosurgery and provides highly specialized, evidence-based, compassionate care for patients who continue to seek back pain relief after previous spinal surgeries and are in need of revision spine surgery. Specialized care is also provided through the center to adults with scoliosis and SI joint pain (sacroiliac joint dysfunction).

At Medical Center Northeast, patients have access to advanced 3D technology that aids in diagnosis and care planning. Medical Center Northeast is the first in Kentucky and fourth in the United States to offer EOSedge™, the next generation imaging system from EOS Imaging, a leader in 2D/3D orthopedic medical imaging and software solutions for 3D anatomical modeling and surgical planning. EOSedge combines leading-edge X-ray detection technology, low-dose radiation modulation, and a new open cabin design to deliver high-resolution images allowing physicians to make well-informed diagnoses and develop personalized treatment plans for patients. The center also features a pain procedure suite where outpatient interventional procedures may be performed to eliminate pain for patients receiving care at the spine center.

The UofL Health – Comprehensive Spine Center is led by a board-certified neurosurgeon who is fellowship trained in complex spinal neurosurgery and spinal neuro-oncology and is also a faculty and research member of the University of Louisville Medical School. The academic connection to the University of Louisville Medical School and its leading research in neurosurgery ensures that the spine center will continue to provide expert care with cutting-edge treatments and services.

Understanding that surgery may not be the end of a patient’s care journey and favoring a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, the spine center develops individualized comprehensive treatment plans for patients with physiatrists and neurology and pain specialists.

Our back pain and back surgery program uses an innovative evidence-based approach with emphasis on the diagnostic accuracy of pain generators. Thus, often success can be achieved despite previous failed back surgeries.

While the center specializes in revision spinal surgeries, it is also advancing the art of minimally invasive surgery including neuroendoscopic microdiscectomy, the most minimally invasive microdiscectomy approach.

The center performs innovative research in spinal cord injury and maintains several databases for spine surgery outcomes research and participates in the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database (N2QOD).

Diseases and conditions

The UofL Health Comprehensive – Spine Center treats conditions such as:

Chronic back pain
Failed back surgery
Lumbar disk herniation
Sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SI Joint Pain)
Scoliosis
Spinal cord tumor
Spinal cord injury
Syringomyelia
Spinal metastases
Primary spine tumors
Spinal stenosis
Spondylolisthesis
Spinal cysts
Spinal kyphosis
Spinal infection
Compression fractures
Spine trauma
Degenerative disc disease
Spinal osteomyelitis
Spinal abscess
Postlaminectomy syndrome
Kyphosis
Myelopathy
Radiculopathy
Sciatica

Treatments and services

As part of their expert care delivered with compassion and excellence, the UofL Health – Comprehensive Spine Center provides the following treatments and services for complex spinal cases: