Spine Surgery Going Away From Fusions

I recently came across an article about what spine surgery will look like in the next 3 to 5 years. The main takeaway: Outpatient surgery and fewer fusions are likely the future of spine surgery.

Look how barbaric the things we were doing 30 years ago were. We were fusing people.

Less fusion is something I’m seeing. This will continue. Fusion is not a natural way for the spine to move, or not to move. The focus has moved to motion preservation, whether through disc replacement or by decompressions that are minimally invasive, and don't further destabilize the spine.

One of the cool things about minimally invasive procedures is that is allows decompressions on a variety of patients who would have traditionally been fusion candidates. As our disc replacement devices improve, and our ability to decompress without destabilizing progresses, we're going to see an ever expanding trend away from fusion as a treatment.

Check out a podcast from one of my colleagues.