One type of arthritis that affects the spine/back is rheumatoid arthritis.  This common type of arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation of the tissue around the joints and other organs.  One of the most debilitating types of arthritis, according to the Arthritis Foundation, rheumatoid arthritis affects approximately 1.3 million Americans.  This disease is more common in females, than males; there are 2.5 times more women with rheumatoid arthritis than men.

When rheumatoid arthritis affects the spine, generally it is the cervical spine (neck).  Rheumatoid arthritis rarely affects the lumbar (lower back) or thoracic (chest area) spine.A few symptoms of this rheumatoid arthritis affecting the spine may include headache, neck pain or stiffness or weakness in the arms and legs.  Once rheumatoid arthritis is diagnosed, if there are symptoms that indicate the cervical spine is affected, an X-ray of the cervical spine will be taken.  This X-ray can be used to assess the joints and intervertebral disc spacing and the overall structure.  Additionally, a MRI or CT Scan may be performed to evaluate if there is any spinal cord compression.

Last year, I was interviewed for an article in The Indianapolis Star.  This interview was by health reporter Shari Rudavsky.  This interview was about degenerative disc disease. 

The following are a few of the common questions about degenerative disc disease, which were asked during this interview.

Q:  How common is degenerative disc disease?

A:  Degenerative disc disease is quite common, especially in people in their 30’s and 40’s.  It is one of the main reason’s that people see their family doctor.

Q:  What causes degenerative disc disease? 

A:  Usually this occurs from normal degenerative changes as a result of aging. The discs in the spine are specialized joints.  Just like a knee or hip that can get arthritic, the disc can also get arthritis.  A common analogy used for the spinal discs is a jelly doughnut.  The inside is soft and it is surrounded by a shell.  When this outer shell tears, the degenerated pieces can extrude through this shell (outer covering) and then sit on the nerves on the spinal cord.

Q: What are the symptoms of degenerative disc disease?

A: The most common symptoms are neck and arm pain that radiates down the arm, below the elbow, down to the hand, associated with weakness and tingling.

Another session on spinal therapeutics will focus on minimally invasive treatment options.  For this session, Dr. John Arbuckle will provide an overview of the different treatment options and discuss their effectiveness.  Dr. Arbuckle is a minimally invasive spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group.

Presentation objectives include:

·        Review of back and neck diagnoses clinically appropriate for minimally interventional treatments.

·        Guidelines, indications and efficacy for specific treatments, including spinal injections, percutaneous discectomy, radiofrequency rhizotomy, IDET and nucleoplasty.

For patient’s suffering from degenerative disc disease in the lumbar spine – surgical treatment options are either a lumbar spinal fusion or an artifical lumbar disc replacement.  The artifical lumbar disc has recently been approved by the FDA.

On June 4, Indiana Spine Group will host a continuing medical education dinner on treatment options of the osteoporotic spine.  Objectives of this session entitled, “A Current Review of Pharmacologic and Interventional Treatments of the Osteoporotic Spine”, includes: 

• A review of the latest pharmacologic clinical guidelines for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. 
• A discussion of treatment algorithms for the osteoporotic spine; including indications and outcomes of vertebral augmentation. 

 

For more information about this program, please call 317.228.7000.

A minimally invasive spine specialist is a physician that specializes in the treatment of patients with spine disorders.  The focus of their patient care is to diagnose the cause of the spine problem, and then to treat the specific cause of the problem which will usually alleviate the symptoms; i.e. back pain.

A physician who is a minimally invasive spine specialist is usually board-certified in anesthesia as well as pain management.  Other terms used for this specialty include pain management, interventional spine specialist or minimally interventional spine specialist.  Regardless of the term used, key is physician’s board certification.

On Friday (August 22), there will be an in-depth review of spinal diagnostics.  One session entitled, The Essentials of Diagnosing   Spinal Pain will be presented by Kevin Macadaeg, MD.  Dr. Macadaeg is a minimally invasive interventional spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group.  
 

Neck and back pain are common symptoms of many underlying spinal problems.  Key to diagnosing the cause of this pain is to have an understanding of the overall spinal mechanics and also what is “normal”, in respect to degenerative changes of the spine.

The objectives of this presentation include:

§         Define the normal aging process and common degenerative changes of the spine.

§         Identify common spinal problems that cause lower back and neck pain and key indicators for diagnosis. 

§         Review the evidence-based guidelines for the diagnostic triage of lower back pain, including appropriateness and use of invasive diagnostic testing.

§         Identify the “yellow” and “red” flags that present as back pain.

A small certain percentage of patients that undergo back surgery / spine surgery; may continue to have chronic back pain and/or lower extremity pain following surgery, that is referred to as failed back syndrome.   This is not an actual syndrome or medical diagnosis – but more a description of the symptoms.  The technical term for this is  post-laminectomy syndrome.

When medical management and other therapies are ineffective, one minimally invasive interventional pain management treatment for patients if they are suffering from both back pain and lower extremity pain is to implant a spinal cord stimulator.  A spinal cord stimulator, also called a neurostimulator uses a tiny programmable generator and electrical leads/ electrodes placed underneath the skin.  The electrodes are placed in the spinal canal, adjacent to the spinal cord.  (Photo courtesy of Medtronic, Inc.)

To learn more, read this recent press release.  This press release profiles a patient who had chronic back and lower extremity pain following back surgery.  Now she enjoys ballroom dancing!

Indiana Spine Group is a center of excellence for the treatment of spinal disorders and abnormalities.  Located in Indianapolis - with offices in Kokomo and Anderson, we provide comprehensive spine care – including interventional pain management treatments, nonsurgical spine treatments, minimally invasive spine procedures, minimally invasive spine surgery and spine surgery.  Treating both adults and children, some common diagnoses that we treat include degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, herniated cervical disc, failed back syndrome, osteoporosis and scoliosis. 

Physicians with Indiana Spine Group include:

§          Ken Renkens, MD (neurosurgical spine surgeon)

§           Rick Sasso, MD (spine surgeon)

§           Kevin Macadaeg, MD (minimally invasive spine specialist)

§           Thomas Reilly, MD (spine surgeon)

§          Jonathan Gentile, MD (minimally invasive spine specialist)

§          John Arbuckle, MD (minimally invasive spine specialist

Stacia Matthews, health reporter with RTV6, just completed (January 2008) - a marathon in Phoenix.  Stacia has raised over $65,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 

Stacia has reported on many new spinal procedures and treatments, interviewing physicians with Indiana Spine Group.  She has interviewed us for stories about cervical disc replacement, as well as other spine surgery, spine wellness and interventional pain management topics.  You can see her health report on the RTV6's evening news at 5:00 pm.

Congratulations Stacia!

Key to planning our spine continuing medical education program is determining the overall objectives.  For this process, we reviewed the comments from last year’s spine symposium, as well as identified key issues important to physicians and other health care providers. 

Overall objectives for this year’s spine symposium are as follows:

•Provide a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of patients who present with back and neck pain including appropriateness for referral to spine specialists.

•Understand the overall principles for evidence-based medicine for the treatment of spinal disorders from an operative and non-operative perspective.

•Understand extrinsic factors affecting spine health; i.e. daily activities, lifestyle habits, sports, aging, and with this information will be able to provide patients’ guidelines to maintain a healthy spine.

•Identify surgical and medical advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with spinal problems and disorders.

•Identify medical and minimally interventional treatment options for patients with spinal disorders, and back or neck pain; as well as have an understanding of the indications and effectiveness of these treatment options.

•Understand the diagnostic and treatment options of patients with specific conditions/issues, including the young athlete, scoliosis, rheumatologic disorders, and the osteoporotic spine patient.

To learn more about the conferece visit our web site or call (317) 228-7000. 

All About Our Spine Symposium - Continuing Medical Education  

Welcome to Indiana Spine Group’s spine education blog.  The purpose of this blog is to provide information about continuing medical education opportunities sponsored by Indiana Spine Group.  In 2007, Indiana Spine Group hosted their first spine symposium for physicians and other health care practitioners.  Over 120 people attended this conference. 

At this conference, we kept hearing about the need for this type of conference – so Indiana Spine Group is going to host a spine symposium in 2008.  Entitled Back Talk – the second spine symposium will be held on August 22 and 23, 2008.  This continuing medical education conference for physicians and other health pracititioners will provide the latest information on interventional pain management - including non-surgical spine treatments, minimally invasive spine procedures and back surgery (cervical and lower back surgery) - helping practitioners treat their patients with back pain and spinal disorders.

To learn more about the conference call 317.228.7000 or click here.   

If you would like to receive a spine conference brochure, send us your contact information.  This can be faxed to 317.228.9029 or emailed to lkriech@indianaspinegroup.com.