At times your neck or back may hurt from lifting something heavy or sitting too long. But if the pain in your neck or back makes it hard for you to do your normal activities, it’s time to see a spine specialist. Athens Orthopedic Clinic can help with pain caused by injuries, medical conditions, or problems with the spine. These problems can include the following and more:

• Broken bones in the spine
• Herniated (slipped) discs
• Curved spines (scoliosis)
• Spinal stenosis (spinal narrowing)
• Pinched nerve to arm or leg

We can provide treatments that don't involve surgery, allowing you to get back to your day as soon as possible. If you need surgery for your spine problem, our experienced doctors offer the widest range of surgical options outside of Atlanta.

Nonsurgical Treatments for Neck and Back Pain

In many cases, we can help you with pain, tingling, feeling weak and other problems in your neck or back without surgery. Some of our less invasive treatments include:

• Rehabilitation. Physical therapists create a treatment plan to help you stand up better, move more easily and have stronger core muscles.
• Oral medicine. Oral medication can help lessen your pain, like ibuprofen or naproxen sodium. Talk to your doctor before taking any medicine.
• Injections. Our specialists use interventional pain management to provide injections for your neck or back to reduce pain and swelling, such as epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, peripheral nerve blocks and plasma injections.
• Spinal cord stimulators. We use small implantable spinal cord stimulators to send electricity into your back to help relieve pain.

Spine Surgery Options

If conservative treatments haven’t worked for you, it’s time to talk to a spine surgeon. For many people, surgery can bring the best outcome and give you a new start.

At Athens Orthopedic Clinic, we may be able to help you find relief even if your symptoms didn’t improve after having surgery elsewhere — or you’ve been told you are out of options.

We are experts in many different types of surgeries, such as:

• Discectomy. We take away part of a hernieated disc so it doesn't press against your nerves.
• Disc replacement. We take away the disc that causes you pain and put in a new, artificial one.
• Kyphoplasty. We put a special balloon inside a broken vertebra to make it stronger and higher again, then fill the space with a unique bone cement so you have extra support.
• Laminectomy. We take off the back part of one or more vertebrae to relieve the uncomfortable pressure that's causing you pain in your spinal cord and nerves.
• Spinal fusion. Our surgeon puts together two or more vertebrae welding them together into one strong bone.
• Scoliosis reconstruction. We correct the abnormal curvature to your spine to help you stand up straighter.

Minimally Invasive Neck and Back Surgery

In most cases, our surgeons use less invasive approaches to help you get back home sooner, get better faster, and with less pain. These include:

• Making smaller cuts in different parts of your body instead of one large one to access the spine.
• Using special tools that move the muscles out of the way instead of cutting them or taking them away from the bone.

Why Choose Athens Orthopedic Clinic for Spine Care

If you’re looking for a safe, successful solution for your neck or back problem, turn to the specialists at Athens Orthopedic Clinic. We’ve helped many Georgians reduce or reverse chronic pain, restore function and regain their quality of life.

People also choose us because:

• We offer complete, well-coordinated care. Our locations throughout Northeast Georgia include imaging centers, outpatient surgery centers, physical and occupational therapy centers, and orthopedic urgent care clinics. This means we can take care of you from diagnosis and treatment through rehab and recovery.
• We offer outpatient spine surgery. Patients who meet certain criteria can return home the same day they have surgery at our Athens surgery center. Studies show that recovering in the comfort of your own home instead of a hospital may lower your risk of infection and other complications. 
• We develop new surgical tools and techniques. Members of our team have patented spinal implant designs and new spine surgery instruments used by surgeons across the country. We were also among the first in the southeastern United States to perform a new type of spinal fusion called single-position, prone lateral access surgery. With this approach we don’t have to cut through muscle, so your recovery is quicker and less painful.
• We’re leaders in spine surgery research. We help make spine surgery safer and more effective by leading (or participating in) research to test new tools and techniques. For example, we recently helped confirm that a new bone grafting material made of living cells can enhance the success of spinal fusion surgery.
  

Read the VAST Clinical Trial: Safely Supplementing Tissue Lost to Degenerative Disc Disease by Douglas P. Beall, Gregory L. Wilson, Randolph Bishop and William Tally.

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