Summary
In this edition of Spine Scams Exposed, Dr. Ara Deukmedjian, CEO and founder of Deuk Spine Institute, reveals why surgeons are increasingly and unnecessarily recommending extensive spinal fusion surgery to patients diagnosed with adult degenerative scoliosis. Dr. Deukmedjian explains that scoliosis itself is rarely the true source of back pain, and that the actual pain generators are almost always disc injuries, facet joint inflammation, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, or piriformis muscle tears — all of which can be treated with minimally invasive procedures. He urges patients to seek a proper diagnosis before consenting to major fusion surgery, and highlights Deuk Spine Institute’s targeted, minimally invasive treatments as the correct and permanent solution.
Transcript
Dr. Ara Deukmedjian: I’m Dr. Ara Deukmedjian, CEO and founder of the Deuk Spine Institute here in Florida. Today we’re going to be covering a Spine Scams Exposed episode where we highlight a scam that is occurring commonly in the world of spine care. In this case, today’s topic is spinal fusion for spinal scoliosis.
All too often, patients encounter surgeons who are anxious and often overwilling to perform what is called a fusion surgery for a condition known as scoliosis. Now, there are two types of scoliosis. There is idiopathic scoliosis — or juvenile scoliosis — which happens in young kids. This is where their entire spine is curving at a young age, and it’s a severe curve that requires correction. That type of scoliosis is not what we’re covering today.
We’re covering the more commonly encountered adult degenerative scoliosis. This is a condition where the spine starts to twist on itself, particularly in the lower back — called the lumbar spine. And what happens is, as the bones twist and settle from degenerative disc disease, you get a rotation of the spine — usually two curves. And this is the condition we’re talking about, where patients will go see their doctor — usually a surgeon — with back pain, and the surgeon will tell them they have to have a fusion that involves virtually their whole spine.
We’re seeing more and more X-rays and patients out there having these types of highly invasive, extensive spinal fusions — and oftentimes it’s multiple fusions occurring over the course of a few years. So why are surgeons recommending so much spinal fusion for scoliosis? Unfortunately, the answer is that they just don’t know how to identify the actual pain source that the patient is presenting for.
Here are the facts. Patients with scoliosis would never undergo major surgery such as spinal fusion unless they had symptoms. The most common symptom people have is back pain. But the back pain is not coming from the scoliosis itself. It’s actually coming from other sources that we already know cause back pain.
There are 30 different causes of chronic back pain. The most common is an injury to the spinal disc. Spinal disc injuries are caused by a tear in the back wall of the disc, where some of the nuclear material herniates into the tear and causes inflammation. Inflammation is your body trying to repair that tear — it’s constantly attacking the jelly trying to get rid of it. That’s what causes chronic back pain most commonly.
Other causes of chronic back pain include a torn, inflamed piriformis muscle, facet joints that are injured and inflamed causing facet pain, or the sacroiliac joint that is injured and causes sacroiliac dysfunction — or pain called sacroiliitis.
So these four causes of back pain have nothing to do with scoliosis. They occur in millions of people worldwide. People have back pain without scoliosis — coming from disc injuries, facet injuries, sacroiliac joint injuries, and piriformis muscle injuries.
What I’m getting at here, folks, is that the scoliosis is just a red herring. In other words, it’s a finding on exam — with MRI, X-ray, or CAT scan. You see the scoliosis and the surgeons think we’ve got to fix the scoliosis to fix the patient’s back pain. But that is not true.
Check out Deuk Spine Institute’s minimally invasive procedures — including our Deuk Laser Disc Repair®, where we go in with a seven-millimeter incision and treat the painful discs and eliminate the pain generator permanently — or our Deuk Plasma Rhizotomy® for the SI joints and facet joint pain, or the Deuk Piriformis Release® for a torn, inflamed piriformis muscle. That’s all you need done, folks.
You don’t need a major fusion done for scoliosis to treat back pain. That is absolutely unnecessary. In all my years of experience, there are only a few cases of patients every year in the United States that actually really need their scoliosis corrected to get rid of their pain or other symptoms such as deformity or difficulty walking. But the vast majority of people having fusion done these days for scoliosis are having it done because they believe the scoliosis is causing their back pain — and that is not the case.
Please visit our website, learn about the 30 most common causes of chronic back pain. You will see that scoliosis is not one of them. I’m Dr. Ara Deukmedjian. We’re here to spread the truth about the spine. Check out our movie called Spine Scams — Spine Scams the Movie. It’s a docudrama that goes into the world of spine surgery and why doctors, hospitals, and implant companies recommend spine surgery so much. Thanks for joining me.
The Better Way: Deuk Laser Disc Repair & Other Treatments
In this Spine Scams Exposed segment, Dr. Ara Deukmedjian explains why adult degenerative scoliosis is routinely — and incorrectly — used to justify extensive spinal fusion surgery, when the true source of pain is almost always one of the 30 identifiable causes of chronic back pain. Rather than fusion, Deuk Spine Institute offers targeted minimally invasive treatments including the Deuk Laser Disc Repair (DLDR)® for herniated discs, the Deuk Plasma Rhizotomy® for facet joint and sacroiliac joint pain, and the Deuk Piriformis Release® for piriformis syndrome — permanently eliminating the actual pain source without rods, hardware, or major surgery.
