The SSA program is a city-wide economic development initiative which utilizes the levy of real estate property taxes to provide additional services to the community. These services may include public way maintenance and beautification; advertising and marketing; business recruitment and retention; transit upgrades and safety programs, among others.

Spiegel will be representing the Greater Ravenswood area, where the Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital is located. Her responsibilities will be to recommend which SSA services to implement, draft a budget and recommend a service provider agency (usually a non-profit organization needed to provide daily management of the SSA) to local aldermen and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD). Her term will last three years, from June, 2009 until June, 2012. Working directly with the City of Chicago will allow Spiegel to positively influence the community issues important to Ravenswood area residents and businesses.

Currently, Spiegel is the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago, the only acute care hospital in the U.S. focused exclusively on neurosurgical, neuromedical and orthopedic services. Under Spiegel’s guidance, the hospital has expanded from a start-up venture to a $40 million health care facility with 85 beds and over 200 full- and part-time employees and is currently recognized by HealthGrades as the number one spine surgery hospital in the state of Illinois and among the top 5% in the nation based upon clinical outcomes. HealthGrades also recognizes the Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago with five stars in knee replacement surgery for its superior outcomes.

Spiegel is responsible for all hospital management and operations, including physician relations, finance, clinical services, business development and strategic planning. Stephanie brings to this position more than 20 years of healthcare management and program development experience.

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June 10, 2009

By JUDY MASTERSON jmasterson@scn1.com
WAUKEGAN — People who suffer from chronic neck pain or degenerative or herniated discs in their upper spine are finding relief, and a new lease on life, through a new surgical procedure.

Christy Lex of Waukegan had a damaged disc in her neck replaced with an artificial disc in December.

A wife, mom and pre-school teacher at Lake County Baptist School in Waukegan, Lex, 34, had suffered from neck pain since 1998.

“I woke up one day and couldn’t turn my neck,” she said. “I tried everything — chiropractic, physical therapy, orthopedic doctors, laser therapy, traction. I had two herniated discs, but they kept telling me I was too young for fusion.”

Lex’s surgery was performed through the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch. The artificial disc for the cervical (neck) region was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is expected to help more than 200,000 Americans who suffer from degenerative disc disease.

The most common treatment for patients with degenerative discs in the cervical spine is spinal fusion, in which a surgeon removes the damaged disc then implants a bone graft and metal plate to fuse the vertebrae together. During artificial disc replacement surgery, the damaged disc is replaced with one made of stainless steel and fastened with bone screws. The device features a ball-in-trough design intended to allow for replication of normal motion.

Lex was back teaching within two weeks of her surgery.

“My recuperation was amazing,” she said. “I’m learning to use muscles I didn’t use right for 10 years. I’m running again. I played volleyball yesterday.”

Lex is also baking cookies for her kids again. She’s driving, playing the flute and French horn and working on Web sites for mission groups.

“It used to hurt to sit at a computer,” she said. “For so long I just couldn’t have fun. It was come home and cry because it took everything just to get through the day.”

Dr. Dean Karahalios, the spine neurosurgeon who recommended disc replacement for Lex, cites studies that show a two-year post-surgery success rate of 79.3 percent for artificial disc recipients compared to 67.8 percent for those who underwent fusion.

“Studies show that artificial cervical disc patients have a higher rate of neurological success as measured by muscle tone, strength, sensation, as well as responsiveness of reflexes as compared to those who have had spinal fusion,” Karahalios said.

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From the beginning, my boss, Lake Co Commissioner, Gerry Scheub, recommended Dr. Karahalios and CINN. But I figured if you goto a surgeon, YOU are having surgery and I wasn’t ready yet. I tried steroid injections and physical therapy, all the while in PAIN. By March 16th I had appt. with Dr. Karahalios. I was ready to stay thaT DAY! He understood the pain I was experiencing and ststed I was a good candidate for an artificial disc. With the help of the CINN staff and Eric Giradot.,P.A., we arranged surgery for the 20th of March.

Immediately upon waking from surgery, I KNEW my neck/shoulder/arm pain was GONE!

I have recouperated well from surgery itself and I am so happy to be out of pain. Gerry and I continue to recommend CINN and Dr.Karahalios, WE know how great we feel now.

Thank you!
Claudia Carlson

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“I would come home from work and go right to bed,” she admits. “After a long day, my arm would be on fire. On a scale of one to 10, the pain was a 12. “

Finally she was referred to the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch where experienced spine surgeon, Dean Karahalios, M.D., recommended the artificial cervical disc. The artificial disc for the cervical (neck) region was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is expected to impact more than 200,000 Americans who suffer from degenerative disc disease.

Currently, the most common treatment for patients with degenerative discs in the cervical spine is spinal fusion. In this procedure a surgeon removes the damaged disc then implants a bone graft and metal plate to fuse the vertebrae together. During artificial disc replacement surgery, the damaged disc is removed and replaced with an artificial disc, a stainless-steel device with a ball-in-trough design intended to allow for replication of normal motion. The disc stays in place with bone screws. The hospital stay for this procedure is approximately one to two days. Patients can begin rehabilitation and return to daily activities soon after surgery. In fact, patients receiving the Prestige ST Cervical Disc returned to work in 45 days, 16 days earlier than the fusion patients.

“Studies show that artificial cervical disc patients have a higher rate of neurological success as measured by muscle tone, strength, sensation, as well as responsiveness of reflexes as compared to those who’ve had spinal fusion ” says Dr. Karahalios. “Studies also demonstrate that at a two year follow-up exam, the overall success rate for the artificial disc group is 79.3% compared to the fusion group at 67.8%. These reasons are compelling enough for potential candidates to consider the option of an artificial disc.”

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May 28, 2009

By JOHN ROSZKOWSKI jroszkowski@pioneerlocal.com

About a year ago, Scott Reizner of Vernon Hills went to bed one evening with a stiff neck and awoke the next day with severe pain shooting from his neck down his left shoulder and arm.

“I took off some work to see if it would get any better, and it didn’t,” said Reizner, 47, who delivers packages for UPS.

Reizner went to see a doctor, had an epidermal steroid shot to relieve the pain, underwent through physical therapy and visited a chiropractor — but nothing seemed to help. Finally, Reizner had an MRI performed and learned that the pain was being caused by five herniated discs in his neck area.

While he doesn’t not know what caused the neck injury, he recalls the pain being excruciating. He had a hard time holding even small packages in his left arm that he was delivering for work. On a scale of one to 10, Reizner described the pain as “definitely a 12.”

‘Hurt so much’

“I’d be practically in tears sometimes because my shoulder hurt so much,” he said.

Now, thanks to an innovative new surgery to replace one of the damaged discs with an artificial cervical disc, Reizner is back to work and is virtually pain-free.

“I wouldn’t have been able to keep doing my job if I didn’t get it fixed,” he said. “Now, I have very little if any pain.”

Dr. Dean Karahalios, spine neurosurgeon with the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch, recommended the artificial cervical disc to Reizner and performed the surgery.

Karahalios said the artificial disc for the cervical (neck) region was invented in Europe about 17 years, but was just approved by the Federal Drug Administration for use in the United States within the last two years.

“I’ve been doing this procedure for some time and I’ve had a number of different patients in Lake County. I’ve also trained a number of surgeons in Lake County on how to do the procedure as well,” he said.

Spinal fusion

Karahalios said the most common treatment for patients with degenerative discs is spinal fusion, a procedure that removes the damaged disc and then implants a bone graft and metal plate to fuse the vertebrae together. In artificial disc replacement surgery, the damaged disc is removed and replaced with an artificial disc, a stainless-steel device with a ball-in-trough design intended to allow for replication of normal motion.

While not appropriate in all cases, he said for many patients artificial disc surgery has advantages over the spinal fusion surgery, including shorter recovery times and reduced risks of certain complications down the road.

“Those complications can be avoided with an artificial disc but also patients have less neck pain after the operation and can return to their normal activities without restrictions after the operation,” he said.

For Reizner, the surgery has been a godsend. He was able to return to work within six weeks of the surgery and can also do other activities he enjoys, including yoga. He said at this point he’s “99 percent pain free.”

“Sometimes, I still feel a little bit of shoulder discomfort but other than that I don’t experience any of the discomfort I had before,” he said.

Patients interested in learning more about the artificial disc can attend a clinic by Karahalios entitled “New Solutions for Stubborn Neck Pain.” The clinic will be held on Wednesday, June 3, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Larry Laschen Center, 294 Evergreen Drive, in Vernon Hills. To learn more about the clinic or to register, call (773) 250-0998 or e-mail your name and phone number to info@cinn.org.

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As I indicated to you in Todd’s room while he was recovering, all of us are very grateful to you and the staff at CINN/NOHC for the wonderful surgical procedure you performed on Todd and for the post surgery care he received.

Thank you, too, for the time you took to show us the MRI images before surgery and the CT scan afterwards. You have a wonderful way of explaining things to lay people who don’t know the physiology of the brain or the medical terms.

When the nurses needed you for approving a change of medication or other concern, you were always available and so prompt to respond so that there was minimal delay.

We took Todd home to be with us in Chicago for a few days when you discharged him on April 30th. We took him back to his family in Grand Rapids on May 3rd and he is improving daily.

We also appreciated the skill and concern of the hospital staff while Todd recuperated. I have not experienced a hospital where the nurses are so quick to respond to a patient’s needs. In addition, they have wonderful attitudes and seem to have a genuine team spirit of co-operation.

God bless you and guide you as you continue to serve patients with brain disorders.

Best regards,

Bruce

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Question: Should My Organization Consider Widgets?
I am a widget junkie. On my Facebook page, I’ve got widgets for a Spanish word of the day. On my personal iGoogle page, I’ve got news feeds from my favorite blogs. And on my iPhone, I’ve got CNN at my fingertips. Some experts say widgets are the applications to watch, now that Web sites, personal blogs, and even e-mail offer little “wow” for most users. Widgets provide readers with news they have requested all in one convenient space – on a home page, Facebook page, iPhone, or desktop. It’s like tuning into your favorite television or radio station and getting exactly the content you want without waiting. You probably know widgets best as RSS feeds that are placed on Web sites or your personal iGoogle page. Or, for Facebook users, they are those applications you download to make your pages more exciting. Widgets are very close to their cousins – gadgets – and you’ll probably hear the terms used interchangeably. However, a widget has reusable code that can plug into virtually any Web site. A gadget acts just like a widget, but it is proprietary. It only works on a certain site or a specific set of sites. Widgets came on the scene about four years ago when Apple released its “Tiger” edition of OS X, the Macintosh operating system, which included a collection of widgets for the Mac dashboard (the main computer screen). Early on, users were able to check airline flights, weather, and even currency fluctuations by adding these small applications to their computers. Now, people are using widgets to share news of their favorite sports teams, games, and preferred brands. What’s unique about widgets is that users choose which applications they want to attach to their sites. Social networkers utilizing branded widgets become brand advocates, and serve as opinion leaders to others who are viewing their social networking pages. And if the widget is truly exceptional, others “grab” it for their own pages. Jeff Nolan, executive vice president of Denver-based NewsGator, says that the power of widgets is that they’re branded content that’s recommended by a friend – a factor that lends tremendous credibility to the user. “Widgets and gadgets are actually more analogous to e-mail marketing than banners. I have the North Face ‘video of the day’ gadget embedded in my iGoogle page. It’s an attractive alternative to e-mail marketing.

Like e-mail, and unlike banners, it allows the retailer to deliver targeted offers as frequently as it wants. If they are not invasive, I want to see special offers regularly. If I ignore them, they just go away and are replaced by a new one later,” writes Andy Lloyd, CEO of Fluid, Inc. in San Francisco.
Lloyd even takes his admiration of widgets one step further. He forecasts that widgets will take over as a way to push messages as the public tires of e-mail and e-mail marketers who send repetitive messages even to those who have opted-in. “With widgets, most of the information we really want to receive will appear on a personal home page,” he predicts, pointing to the fact that many teens
don’t have e-mail accounts, but use their Facebook pages to communicate with exactly who they want and spread the word about only the brands they admire.

Who uses widgets?
Widgets aren’t just for software companies wanting to attract attention to their services. National
Geographic has truly embraced the world of widgets. The magazine has developed more than 15 branded widgets for Facebook users and other social networkers, including popular photo widgets that now reside on thousands of personal Web pages. You can pick up your National Geographic widget at http://widgets.nationalgeographic.com/widgets. “The goal of the widgets is to reach key influencers who will interact with the brand,” says Brendan Hart, vice president of marketing and business intelligence for digital media at National Geographic in a 2008 issue of DMNews. “In addition, we find that widgets give [members of] our audience a chance to take a piece of National Geographic back with them to their social space.” Bacardi promotes its rum to social network aficionados through widgets. The company worked with New York City-based technology firm Buddy Media to create a widget called the Bacardi Mojito Party. The application includes a Mojito bartender game, a Mojito cocktail calculator to measure how much of each ingredient is needed for the number of guests at a party, and an interactive game for becoming a virtual bartender. Just a week after launching the widget, more than 100,000 Facebook members enhanced their Web pages with the new branded application (which Buddy Media calls an “appvertisement”). American Airlines and Dallas-based agency The Marketing Arm recently combined forces to create an application on Facebook. With this widget, users can share travel experiences with friends, read reviews, comment on restaurants and shops, and create countdowns for upcoming events or trips. It also offers a link to www.AA.com, where Facebook users can check for fares, make reservations, view their frequent flyer miles, check gate and arrival/departure information, and get information on travel destinations – all within their own profile page.

Healthcare widgets
You are probably thinking, “So, where are the healthcare widgets?” That’s a good question. Up until now, only a few healthcare organizations have gotten on the widget bandwagon. One is the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch, where Mike Endicott, manager of electronic communication, both places widgets on the organization’s site and has developed a few of the organization’s own widgets for placement on other users’ sites. Endicott uses widgets on the Institute’s site to help users watch for traffic snarls, map their routes to the hospital, and view select videos on YouTube. He also publishes a widget that provides an RSS feed of Web content from the Institute. As he reports, the Institute-generated widgets have become increasingly popular. He has noticed more users grabbing the organization’s unique widgets to place on their own sites, most noticeably their personal iGoogle pages. Shown here is the organization’s promotion for its physician blog widget: For Endicott, widgets are a great way to provide up-to-date information and not reinvent the wheel. “To create this information from scratch limits you,” he says. “I could possibly create a better application, but the point is to get the information out to the user. People need information and the widget does that efficiently.” As for the RSS-feed widgets he creates, Endicott reports he can track subscribers and their areas of interest. “Widgets won’t necessarily help you
get your site to the top of Google,” he says. “That requires a great Web experience that may be more than just widgets. However, they are good for increasing usability.” Lloyd of Fluid, Inc. says he can think of dozens of uses for widgets in healthcare. For example, he suggests setting up a widget feed for distributing information on a specific healthcare topic. “How about providing a peer group of cancer patients a regular feed of cancer-related information?” he asks. Similarly, Cara Wood, editor-in-chief of DMNews, also suggests daily news feeds to select communities, such as parents of kids with autism. “The day-to-day support network could be very effective,” she says.

Where to start
Now that widgets have your attention, how do you start to create them? The simplest solution is by
looking through some of the widget templates available online. For example, www.widgetbox.com has a “make your own widget” template that can be set up in minutes. The widget simply takes news feeds from a blog or Web site. Using simplified code, it can easily be placed on any user’s site. A similar service is offered by www.Clearspring.com. Both sources also supply analytical mechanisms to help track how many times a widget is “grabbed” and placed on a Web site. If templates are not your style and you want to create your own widget, be careful about developing something too complex. Michael Jones, CEO of Santa Monica, CA-based Userplane, warns that the golden rule is to make the code for the widget easy to copy and integrate. The idea is to keep the application simple and not frustrate potential users. And, of course, think about your content. The trick to an effective
widget is creating one that has regularly updated content. “You have to keep the information fresh,”
says Lloyd. “If you had a television station that always played ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ you know sooner or later people would get tired of watching it.” The best widgets are not always news feeds. Some are truly the products of out-of-the-box thinking. Successful widget campaigns tend to help people make things easier – like registering for an event, getting tips for playing a favorite video game, or listening to the latest music. Above all, make sure your widget includes content that others want to share. Ultimately, that’s the whole point – a widget that’s virally distributed by its users will ultimately do your marketing for you.

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Sleepless
By LISA SANDERS, M.D.

1. SYMPTOMS

“You have big hands,” the white-haired doctor said as he shook the patient’s hand. The patient nodded and smiled — he had certainly heard that before — then settled down in the chair across from the newest of the specialists he consulted. The 51-year-old patient had not had a good night’s sleep in more than a decade. He went to a sleep specialist several years earlier, but the doctor wasn’t able to figure out why he couldn’t sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time. His primary-care doctor, a woman he trusted a great deal, recently recommended trying again. She directed him to the doctors at the Christie Clinic in Champaign, Ill.

He didn’t have any trouble falling asleep, he told the sleep expert, Dr. John Helfrich. He fell asleep all the time — in meetings, after meals and sometimes he felt close to dozing off when he was driving. But he could not stay asleep. After an hour, maybe an hour and a half, he would wake up. Then if he could get back to sleep, he would wake up again 90 minutes later. Every night was a series of catnaps strung together. Sometimes when he woke up he was hungry, even though he had eaten dinner. That happened every couple of hours during the day too. He thought his sugar might be low, because he felt dizzy and kind of shaky until he ate. Yes, he did snore, and no, he didn’t have pain in his legs, the former a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, the latter of restless legs, two of the most common sleep problems.

The patient ate a healthful diet and exercised for one or two hours every day. Despite this, his blood pressure was high (for which he took two medicines), and so was his cholesterol. He had allergies, which drove him crazy despite an antihistamine and a nasal steroid spray. A couple of years ago he broke his foot and found out that his bones were thin and weak. He saw an endocrinologist, who was treating him for that problem. He had adult onset acne and saw a dermatologist for that. And his teeth had their own midlife crisis: he was fitted for braces to repair his bite. “Seems like everything just went to hell after I turned 40,” the patient would tell each doctor.

2. INVESTIGATION

As he examined the patient, Helfrich was again struck by how massive he seemed. Not obese but big, really big. “Have you always been this large-boned?” he asked the patient. The patient joked that he was thinner years ago — but weren’t we all? Helfrich looked carefully at the man’s face. His lower jaw and chin seemed broad and unusually square.

The patient’s blood pressure was a little high, and his heart was a little fast for a man who exercised every day. The rest of the exam was unremarkable. Certainly the patient would benefit from a sleep study, where he could be monitored as he slept to better evaluate why he was having so much trouble.

Helfrich still wasn’t satisfied. It seemed clear that there was more going on here than just insomnia. On a hunch, he sent off a couple of blood tests. The sleep study didn’t show any evidence of restless legs or sleep apnea. One of the blood tests was more revealing. It showed that the patient was producing a huge amount of growth hormone. He had acromegaly, a disease caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland. The name, from the Greek, serves as a fitting description of the most obvious symptoms: great (megal-) extremity (akron) — usually leading to enlargement of the hands, feet and face. (The actor Richard Kiel, who played the murderous character Jaws in 1970s James Bond films, has acromegaly.) An M.R.I. done the following week confirmed the presence of a tumor in the pituitary gland that was a little larger than a raisin. The following month, the patient had the tumor removed from his brain.

Almost immediately his hands, feet and face shrank significantly. (In fact when he went back to Helfrich a couple of months after the surgery, the doctor didn’t recognize him.) But no one expected what happened next. All his symptoms disappeared as well. It turned out that the allergies that blocked his nose despite hefty doses of antihistamines weren’t really allergies to begin with. Acromegaly causes swelling of the soft tissues — in this case around the nose and mouth. Within days of the surgery the patient could breathe better than he had in years.

His high blood pressure dropped to normal — cured by the now-normal levels of growth hormone. He no longer had to eat every couple of hours; the excess growth hormone caused an overproduction of insulin, which sent his blood sugar plunging when he wasn’t maintaining a constant stream of food. But best of all, the patient no longer woke every 90 minutes. Too much growth hormone short-circuits REM sleep. Instead of slipping into the dream stage, the patient would simply wake up. “The night after my surgery, even with the nurses waking me and checking on me, was the best sleep I’d had in over a decade,” the patient said.

How come not one of the dozens of doctors — including an endocrinologist — that he saw over the nearly 15 years of interrupted sleep and other symptoms figured out that he had acromegaly? Perhaps because the various symptoms of his tumor were, for the most part, common problems: insomnia, high blood pressure, allergies and acne. They developed separately, years apart, and each was addressed by a specialist. It would take an act of imagination to link these symptoms. The patient never made that leap, and neither did any of his doctors.

3. RESOLUTION

The patient says Helfrich was the only doctor who seemed to truly look at him. During that first encounter, Helfrich didn’t take notes, didn’t focus on his chart, didn’t click through page after page in the computer. He simply asked questions, listened to the answers and observed.

Helfrich says a light went off in his head as soon as he saw the patient. Earlier in his career, he heard about a female patient who suffered for many years before anyone figured out she had acromegaly. Seeing this patient reminded him of that missed diagnosis.

Not long after meeting Helfrich, the patient visited his primary-care doctor — the doctor who had known him for years — and told her that acromegaly was being considered. No way, she first told him. But sitting there, looking at his face and thinking about the changes caused by this disease, she began to reconsider. He did have the characteristically broad chin and nose. He was wearing braces because of changes in his jaw and teeth. His hands were huge. Suddenly, she could see the possibilities. Maybe he did have acromegaly.

The diagnosis was staring her in the face for years, but she did not see it. Psychologists call this inattention blindness — instances when we don’t see something because it’s not what we are expecting to see; it’s not what we are looking for. Sherlock Holmes had a somewhat different description. “I have trained myself to notice what I see,” Holmes says. Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a physician, imbued his character with the kind of keen observational skills so essential to a good physician. This ability consists of casting a wide net to see the whole picture — even when the complaint that brings the patient to medical attention is commonplace, like insomnia.

The patient’s bones are still thinner than normal. He takes calcium for that. And he has to have colonoscopies every 3 years rather than every 10 because acromegaly is associated with a higher rate of colon cancer. But otherwise his life is great. The day after his surgery, he knew he was “a different person.”

“I’m kicking myself for not diagnosing you,” his primary-care doctor said to the patient regretfully. But the patient continues to have faith in his doctor. “Everybody missed it,” he told me. “But she’s the only one who apologized.”

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Clinic for patients with neck pain to be held in Vernon Hills, June 3

For more than a decade, the French horn and flute have been silent. Their owner, Christy Lex, was robbed of her ability to play because of a degenerative disc in her neck that sent searing pain down her arms. Instead of the 34-year-old enjoying life, the Lake County Baptist School teacher let the beloved instruments collect dust in her Waukegan home. She blames scoliosis for the disc problem and the pain that dramatically altered her work and personal life.

“I was crabby with my kids and husband and I was tired of being tired,” she admits. “I had tried everything, from pain medication to traction. Ten years of a stabbing pain in my neck and dull aches in my arms finally got to me.”

She sought help at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch where experienced spine neurosurgeon, Dean Karahalios, M.D., recommended the artificial cervical disc. Since many health insurers recently approved health care coverage of the disc, Christy and her husband could afford the procedure. The artificial disc for the cervical (neck) region is expected to impact more than 200,000 Americans who suffer from degenerative disc disease.

“My recuperation was amazing,” she says. “I was back to work with minimal pain in two weeks. Now I can type on the computer without pain, and I have even started playing my French horn and flute again.”

Currently, the most common treatment for patients with degenerative discs in the cervical spine is spinal fusion. This is where a surgeon removes the damaged disc then implants a bone graft and metal plate to fuse the vertebrae together. During artificial disc replacement surgery, the damaged disc is removed and replaced with an artificial disc, a stainless-steel device with a ball-in-trough design intended to allow for replication of normal motion. The disc stays in place with bone screws. The hospital stay for this procedure is approximately one to two days. Patients can begin rehabilitation and return to daily activities soon after surgery. In fact, a pivotal study demonstrated that patients receiving the Prestige ST Cervical Disc returned to work in 45 days, 16 days earlier than the fusion patients.

“Studies show that artificial cervical disc patients have a higher rate of neurological success as measured by muscle tone, strength, sensation, as well as responsiveness of reflexes as compared to those who’ve had spinal fusion,” says Dr. Karahalios. “Studies also demonstrate that at a two-year follow-up exam, the overall success rate for the artificial disc group is 79.3% compared to the fusion group at 67.8%. These reasons are compelling enough for potential candidates to consider the option of an artificial disc.”

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