Augusta University Health's Spine Care Clinic offers diagnosis and treatment to both adult and pediatric patients with cervical, thoracic or lumbar spinal conditions. We offer nonsurgical and surgical treatments for common spinal ailments all the way up to complex spinal diseases and disorders.
Augusta University Health's Spine Care Clinic offers diagnosis and treatment to both adult and pediatric patients with cervical, thoracic or lumbar spinal conditions. We offer nonsurgical and surgical treatments for common spinal ailments all the way up to complex spinal diseases and disorders.
Why Choose Us
We specialize in diagnosing and treating injuries, diseases, and disorders of the neck and spine, offering,
- Multidisciplinary care: Our spinal care teams include orthopedists, orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, neurosurgeons and neuroanesthesiologists.
- Highly skilled surgical teams: We have dedicated spine specialists with expertise in performing surgeries to treat problems such as, scoliosis, spine deformities, revision and reconstructive spine surgeries, and tumor removal.
- Advanced pain management surgery: We routinely perform morphine pump implantation and spinal cord stimulator implantation for chronic pain in patients who have failed to respond to non-surgical treatments.
- State-of-the-art technology: We use non-invasive Gamma Knife technology.
- Minimally-invasive spinal techniques: Providing patients less pain and a faster recovery after spinal surgery.
Academic Advantage
As an academic medical center focused on training the surgeons of tomorrow, we use a multidisciplinary approach to develop strong working relationships with other specialists. For example, we work closely with neuroanesthesiologists so that we can perform more sophisticated neurosurgical procedures of the neck and spine. We also collaborate clinical care and follow-up protocols with Augusta University’s Neuroendocrine Clinic for patients with neuroendocrine tumors.
Conditions We Treat
Our team is prepared to take care of any of your spinal needs, from nonsurgical treatments to minimally invasive procedures to major reconstructive surgeries, we see patients for:
- Back and neck pain
- Congenital defects
- Degenerative conditions of the neck and back
- Degenerative disc disease
- Fractures
- Herniated discs
- Myelopathy
- Pediatric and adult scoliosis
- Radiculopathy
- Spinal infections
- Spinal stenosis
- Spine tumors (metastatic and primary)
- Spondylosis
- Spondylolisthesis
- Trauma
Diagnostic Tests and Procedures
The spine services at Augusta University Health follow strict protocols, employing highly trained and experienced technicians who specialize in imaging, using state-of-the-art imaging equipment for:
- Clear, high quality CT scans
- MRIs for more accurate diagnoses.
These advanced diagnostics allow us to offer a second clinical opinion to any spinal condition and present viable solutions for your specific spinal injury or condition.
Treatments
Because of the complexity of the spine, you want a team with the experience to treat any type of problem you might have. There are many treatment options available to our patients.
Nonsurgical treatments
We provide non-invasive treatments to help relieve spine pain and discomfort. These options can also be a part of follow up care after a surgical procedure.
- Bracing, to provide support following an injury, prevent progression of scoliosis, or to help correct posture.
- Injections, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) can reduce swelling and pain. We also use analgesics to relieve pain.
- Physical Therapy at our rehabilitation center to help patients strengthen muscles, improve posture and increase flexibility,
- Occupational Therapy, to help patients return to their normal daily activities.
Surgical treatments
Sometimes the best course of action is surgery. In many cases we can consider minimally invasive spine surgery, if appropriate. If you have a more complex case, know you are getting the best surgical treatment from the area’s best spinal surgeons, who perform:
- Ablation, to remove tissue build up to help with pain.
- Morphine pump implantation, for acute pain management of cancer pain and pain of other origins.
- Peripheral nerve stimulator implantation, pulsed stimulation of the peripheral nerve, an emerging and promising treatment in the management of chronic headache syndromes.
- Radiosurgery, is targeted radiation to treat tumors and lesions of the spine. This is performed at our Gamma Knife Center.
- Spinal cord stimulator implantation, pulsed stimulation of the brain or spinal cord that can be used to help control chronic pain to avoid undergoing reoperation for failed spinal surgery.
- Spinal fusion, performed for back injury. Surgeons connect two or more bones of the vertebrae which stops movement between them.
- Spinal embolization, is when medications or other materials are passed through a catheter into a blood vessel to stop the flow of blood to a tumor or eliminate arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).
