Spine Center

As leaders in orthopedic care, we specialize in a variety of treatments. Before recommending surgery, we focus on noninvasive solutions and work with you to ensure the best possible outcome. Your individualized plan may include physical therapy, medications, acupuncture, injections and other therapies to reduce your pain and inflammation:

• Acupuncture: Our team includes experts in acupuncture, which has been shown to reduce pain and increase mobility.
• Epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, selective nerve root block, prolotherapy: Our specialists are experts in epidural steroid injections, selective nerve root blocks, facet joint injections and prolotherapy. Using a type of X-ray called fluoroscopy, they deliver medication directly to targeted areas of your body to lessen pain and inflammation and stimulate your healing response.
• Radiofrequency ablation: Using radiofrequency, we heat part of your spinal nerve so that it can't send pain signals to your brain. This safe procedure reduces pain and improves your range of motion.
• Spinal cord stimulation: Our experts use ultrasound technology and X-ray imaging to implant a device in your spine. The device delivers bursts of electricity to counteract inflammation and pain.

Together with your physician and surgeon, you can pinpoint the surgery best suited for you. Our Sentara Spine Center surgeons are expertly qualified to provide the following options, among others:

• Cervical decompression and spine fusion: Your surgeon makes an incision in the lower front of your neck and then removes certain intervertebral discs, using retractors to protect your neck's soft tissue. Most often, your surgeon removes only abnormal discs.
• Cervical discectomy and fusion: Your surgeon retrieves a disc in your neck and fuses the vertebrae together. This procedure relieves pressure and pain by stabilizing the damaged area of your spine.
• Cervical disc replacement (arthroplasty) using artificial discs: To preserve as much motion as possible in your cervical spine, your surgeon replaces an affected disc with an artificial one.
• Cervical laminectomy: In this operation, your surgeon removes the laminae, the “roof” of the spinal canal, along with soft tissue that might be causing pressure on your spinal cord.
• Complex reconstructive spine surgery: This type of surgery helps patients who have had back, neck or spine surgery, scoliosis or another condition that involves more than three spinal segments. Your surgeon will have a subspecialty in complex surgery.
• Kyphoplasty: This minimally invasive procedure corrects a compression fracture. Your surgeon inserts a needle through a small incision, then inflates a balloon in the damaged bone. He or she then injects bone cement into the new space, where it hardens and reinforces the vertebrae.
• Lumbar decompression and fusion: To ease pain and improve stability, your surgeon may recommend fusing vertebrae together. This procedure stabilizes the spine and relieves pain.
• Lumbar laminectomy: For people who have spinal stenosis, this decompression surgery makes the spinal canal larger and eases pain. Your surgeon removes a portion of the vertebra called the lamina to reduce pressure on the spinal canal.
• Lumbar microdiscectomy: To relieve sciatica pain, your surgeon removes part of a disc that places pressure on the nerves.
• MAZOR robotic-assisted spine surgery: Our experts use the MAZOR Robotics Renaissance System for its precision, safety and effectiveness. Prior to surgery, we create a blueprint of our surgical plan using groundbreaking 3D planning software. The Renaissance system guides your surgeon's tools and ensures precision throughout the surgery.
• Resection of spinal tumors: With this surgery, our team can remove tumors in the lumbar spinal canal and then determine if they are benign or malignant.
  Spine trauma surgery: Teaming with an extensive group of experts, our surgeons repair and minimize broken bones, disks and vertebrae and stabilize the spine so that you can regain as much movement as possible.

At Sentara, we want you to know what to expect before undergoing a procedure. Our support services include preoperative (pre-op) education, a guidebook, and a spine patient navigator. We understand education empowers you to play an active role in your surgery and recovery so you can return to your favorite activities as soon as possible. You can rely on us for:

• Preoperative education: Pre-op education is crucial for you and your Coach (a family member or friend who will support you both before and after surgery) to gather information about pre-and postoperative care and procedures, what to expect and how to prepare your home for recovery. You'll be equipped with the information you need to feel comfortable and confident as you take steps to improve your life.
• Sentara Spine Center Patient and Family Guidebook: Page-by-page, you'll find useful resouces on how to best prepare for your surgery and recovery. Your guidebook includes medication guidance, preoperative instructions, tips to manage and describe pain, exercises and tools that can assist you before and after surgery and ease the surgical and recovery process for you.
• Dedicated spine patient navigator: Expert nurses with advanced experience in spine care that can answer questions about both your condition and the recommended solutions as they guide you through your surgical journey.

Please visit our Spine Education page to access our educational tools to prepare you for your upcoming spine surgery.