Why has fusion surgery received such negative press?
In the early 1950s doctors had no way of identifying what was painful and what was not, and most importantly, they had no idea where the pain was coming from. Fusions were done fairly indiscriminately in hope that the pain would dissipate. Consequently, fusion was deemed “bad” because it wasn’t done properly and was done on a large patient population for which the procedures weren’t necessary in the first place. If the joint doesn’t hurt the patient, then removing the joint motion and fusing it isn’t going to help them. Now we have MRI scans and can easily determine whether or not someone actually needs a fusion. At The Minimally Invasive Spine Institute we have taken it a step further with a pain mapping process that identifies the exact source of the pain allowing us to work only on the pain source. At the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute fusions are a last resort, and are always performed with endoscopic or minimally invasive techniques, so as not to violate muscle tissue. The pat
