Spine Care

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

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.

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).