Spine Surgery

If you and your doctor decide that spinal surgery is the best treatment for your spine condition, the renowned orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons at the Spine Center work together to create a personalized treatment plan for you. Whenever appropriate, we use minimally invasive approaches, many of which NYU Langone experts helped pioneer. These techniques allow for smaller incisions, a shorter recovery time, and a quicker return to the activities you enjoy.

We use the most advanced navigation and surgical technologies available. For example, our surgeons use Precision Virtual Reality for procedures treating spinal deformities. Developed and refined by NYU Langone neuroradiologists, this technology turns MRI images into three-dimensional virtual reality landscapes, allowing surgeons to view a patient’s anatomy from any angle to improve the accuracy of the procedure.

Our intraoperative monitoring team helps ensure your safety during the procedure by observing your motor skills, checking muscle and nerve health, and monitoring your reaction to touch, pressure, and pain.

Our surgeons are supported by a team of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and neurosurgical nurses who monitor your progress and care for you with compassion, starting before surgery and continuing through recovery.

Conditions We Treat with Spine Surgery

We treat a broad range of conditions that affect the spine:

• degenerative conditions, such as osteoarthritis of the spine
• complex spinal problems associated with a previous failed surgery
• scoliosis and kyphosis in in children and adults
• cervical and lumbar herniated discs
• spinal stenosis
• spondylolisthesis
• neuromuscular diseases
• spinal cord and spinal column tumors
• all spinal fractures, including spine compression fractures
• spine trauma
• intradural and extradural spinal pathologies
• vascular lesions of the spinal cord and spinal column
• congenital conditions such as spina bifida, tethered cord syndrome, diastematomyelia, Chiari malformations, and hemivertebrae

Spine Procedures We Perform

Our surgeons have expertise in a range of surgical procedures, some of which can be performed on an outpatient basis, allowing you to return home the same day.

Discectomy or Microdiscectomy

Discectomy and microdiscectomy both refer to decompression surgeries to remove the portion of a disc that is herniated and pressing on a nerve. These procedures preserve mobility.

Cervical Laminoplasty and Laminectomy

During this decompression procedure, a surgeon enlarges the spinal canal, the space through which the spinal cord passes, to alleviate stenosis and preserve mobility.

Foraminotomy

Foraminotomy is a decompression procedure in which surgeons enlarge the space through which a nerve passes out of the spinal canal. These spaces, called foramina, can become partially blocked with bone or other tissue. Surgeons remove the obstruction to free the nerve and preserve mobility.

Laminectomy and Laminotomy

During a laminectomy, a surgeon removes the back part of a vertebra, called the lamina, to provide more space to a nerve or a portion of the spinal cord that is being compressed. If only a portion of the lamina is affecting the nerve, the surgeon may remove some of the tissue in a procedure called laminotomy. Both procedures preserve mobility.

Disc Replacement

In a disc replacement, which is performed to decompress nerves or part of the spinal cord in the cervical or lumbar spine, surgeons replace a worn or damaged disc between two vertebrae with an artificial disc, or “spacer.” No plates or fusion is needed for this procedure, which preserves mobility. Your doctor may recommend disc replacement rather than spinal fusion if you have a herniated disc in your neck and are younger than 65.

Spine Fusion Surgery

Spine fusion surgery is performed to stabilize the spine or to straighten a crooked spine. During the procedure, a surgeon permanently joins, or fuses, two or more vertebrae in the spine. As the vertebrae heal, they become one solid bone. This prevents the vertebrae from moving in a way that compresses or irritates the nerve. Spinal fusion is performed to treat some spinal degenerative conditions and spinal deformities such as scoliosis or kyphosis, as well as broken or unstable vertebrae and conditions including spondylolisthesis.

Vertebral Body Tethering

Vertebral body tethering (VBT) is a minimally invasive spine surgery to treat children with scoliosis. During this procedure, a surgeon places a flexible cord, or tether, to pull the spine into alignment as the child grows. VBT is one alternative to traditional surgical techniques such as spinal fusion surgery.

Dedicated Spine and Neurosurgery Operating Rooms

Many of our spine surgeries are performed at NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion in dedicated spine and neurosurgery operating rooms—which feature the most advanced technology available, including navigation, robotics, intraoperative CT, and MRI scanning—on dedicated neuroscience floors, where all team members specialize in caring for people who have spine conditions.

Contact Us

We have Spine Center locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as on Long Island. To make an appointment, call 844-698-2224.