Laser Spine Surgery
I would really like to know, do any of the experts know of the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Florida?
If so, do you know if their techniques are as successful as they advertise? Are these techniques widely used in the US?
I have been disabled by pain due to combination of conditions in my lower back. I had a 2 surgeries on my back (not fusions) when I was a teenager. The scar tissue from these surgeries and other surgeries has become a contributing factor to my back pain, herniated discs (mild to moderate) and a foraminal narrowing.
I injured my piriformis muscle on June 4, 2006 and have had sciatic pain, spasms and swelling in my lower back, hips and legs. The right side is much more severe. I have disc degeneration in other areas too.
I sent my MRI's to the Laser Spine Institute and have gone through the physician's interview by phone. They say that I am a good candidate for their procedure (a 5 day process) to remove scar tissue and trim the 3 hernias by laser and to remove the bone spur (this may not be the correct medical term) by endoscopic techniques.
I live in Canada. Laser spine surgery is not available here.
The reason why this is a good idea for me is because of the minimal invasiveness of the laser and endoscope. The cost for me would be approximately $30,000.00 plus. With the currency exchange it would be about $40,000.00 Canadian. I just can't afford it, yet it seems to be my only hope for improvement.
I realize this will not stop further disc degeneration or osteoarthritis future events but if the success rate of this surgery is as good as they say and the doctors and clinic are reputable, isn't my quality of life worth more than my house?
All my doctors here do not want me to undergo back surgery because I create a lot of scar tissue which might worsen the situation. They are supportive of the procedure at the laser spine institute.
What can I do? I am very frustrated that there is something out there that might improve the pain yet I can't have the treatment do to cost. I have lost a semblance of my prior active life. Now my big goals are to be able to sit comfortably to watch TV, stay out of bed for 5 hours and not use my cane around the house. The exhausting pain never goes, it may be reduced with medication but it is always there, invisible and devastating.
What can I do? Does the Laser Spine Institute have a good reputation?
Thank you for reading my rather long question.
Sincerely,
Deborah
I am not personally familiar with center in Florida, but I can say that I have a patient who underwent laser spinal surgery (in Southern California) on the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. His immediate results were miraculous. Unfortunately, he was in another accident; so his results were short lived.
Scientific research is still very inconclusive about laser surgery for the spine.
A $40,000 bill is very painful indeed especially when there is no guarantee. I might look to South America (Brazil) or Japan because other countries besides the U.S. (expensive U.S.) have well respected surgeons. And your money might go farther.
Dr. Christina Lasich, MD
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (3)
- Report Abuse
I can tell you that i have been following this spine center i don't know if you have seen or how much you have read about this hospital center. The tech neat that they use is just unbievable i have had Six lower spine surgerys,three fusions,twenty grand worth of the best electronics you can buy so the say. Thirty nine hours under anasteuare if i knew that LSI was around i would have been the first one there. I'm sure that you have their web-site i was hurt twenty two years ago and the surgon that one or two people told me about carve me up he did three of the six operation. When i went to him his office was full all the time to make it short he was a brain doctor and did backs as a side line money maker. SPI wasn't around them i have watch their video and when they finish they put a band-aid over the hole. I have listen to people who have been there and had their backs
taken care of they threw their meds:away check them out. I highley believe in them.
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (3)
- Report Abuse
Hey Dockside,
It sounds to me like I've got the same conditions as you have. I'm in my mid-twenty's & have now been suffering for about 5 years, if not longer. I was also curious about the laser procedure done in Tampa, FL as it was recommended to me by a doctor here in Canada where I reside.
I know it's offered in the U.S & not yet here in Canada if it ever will be. It is very expensive as you outlined, but after reading many testimonials it sounds as if the success rate is overall the best for this type of procedure.
I still want to do a bit of research on it, but am seriously thinking of getting this done... cause if this can fix me, price doesn't matter... quality of life does!
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (3)
- Report Abuse
Hi,
I'm also doing some research for my grand-mother on this surgery. I called the clinic in Tampa and it's very expensive. I found a clinic in Calgary that i'm currently looking into.
Dr. Jacques A Bouchard
Work Phone: 403-944-8236
Foothills Medical Center
1403-29th street NW G33k
Calgary T2N 2T9 Canada
I hope this help....please keep me posted with your finding....and I will do the same.
Carolin
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (2)
- Report Abuse
Vickie
Tuesday, October 06, 2009 at 12:35 AM
Try Microspine, They are located in the Florida panhandle and have people from all over the world to have surgery's there. My roommate has used them for pain management for 4 yrs. And is fixing to have to go through her first laser surgery. To undo all 4 previous surgery damage.
Muffet
Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 10:23 PM
I am on the waiting list in Vancouver for a lumbar laminectomy, and have been reading about LSI. There must be a reason we don't have laser back surgery in Canada, since it seems to be successful in the USA, although not for everyone. I would be interested to know about your results with the clinic in Calgary.
Thanks.
Muffet
Hi
If you ever find out about the clinic in Calgary, please let me know as well at likestoclean@hotmail.com
I went to the laser seminar from Tampa in Toronto last night and would LOVE to be able to go there but it is totally out of my reach :-(
Best of luck!
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (2)
- Report Abuse
I recently had surgery at LSI and it was a nightmare. I wish that I had asked myself some basic questions. Here are some answers. LSI has to advertise because it is unlikely that your family doctor would ever refer you to them if they had ever visited LSI. LSI's doctors claim to be board certified, but they won't tell you which board. LSI's doctors brag about the work they do to relive nerve pain, but they do nothave any neurosurgeons. LSI's doctors do not carry enough malpractice insurance because Florida law lets them practice this way since they have no hospital privileges. LSI makes you feel better temporarily because they do nerve ablations and shoot you up with a cocktail of steroid injections. I was able to negotiate their $30,000 down to $5000 only because ANYTHING they get is too much, and I could have gone to any reputable hospital and had a better surgery for less. Their laser is not widely accepted as the standard by real surgeons because the laser can cause a lot of unintended damage to surrounding bone and tissue. I walked out of my son's graduation yesterday and went home because I could not stand the pain. If only I would have walked out of LSI, I would have a picture of me with my son in his gown. I threw away my money and my life in Tampa.
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (4)
- Report Abuse
soudi
Friday, October 09, 2009 at 12:52 AM
Hi Please let me know how are you feeling now. This is realy very very important to me.I have no choice to beg you to answer me frankly.did the money worth it. Are you OK now. Hope you are.
Thank you and bless
Dear Deborah,
I also live in Ontario, Canada, my neurologist says he wants me to have an operation for cervical myelopathy. I have no strength in my lower limbs, I fall all the time, have been in hospital for a month where every test under the sun was done. The doctor's once said to me that after allt he tests results came back and they were all negative. But after my stay in the hospital they decided that I should have surgery to release the compression on the spinal cord.
I have done my research, and to me the best way for this is through laser spine surgery.
Like you, I cannot afford it, so what are we to do.
I do not want to take the change which is only by the way 50/50 on being paralized.
There must be some hospitals in Canada that have laser spine surgery, and if there are I wish they would help us.
Stay strong, you are not alone.
Marlene
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (2)
- Report Abuse
dockside
Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 04:44 PM
Hi Marlene and everyone,
I did follow up with LSI until the end. It turns out that when I asked them for a letter from one of their doctors, signed, on their letterhead, specific to me, so that I could at least apply for medicare reimbursement, they refused. Eventually, they asked to see all my MRI studies on CD. Then I got a 3 line response from the intake person that I required more invasive surgery than LSI could provide and my CD's would be returned to me. I tried to ask them for a more comprehensive evaluation of what their doctor's thought I did need but they would not ever answer anymore emails from me.
This took 6 months of my life working to find money supply informationtion to my doctor, ask for letters from my doctors for medicare, writing to LSI often.
Looking back at the process, I beilieve that the application MRI reports never reach a doctor. If the report says you have a hernia, then I believe they write to you and say you are a candidate. Then you spend an hour on the phone with a physician's assistant or so they say, answering questions about your symptoms. They seem knowledgeable so you get hopeful. Then they send you the "standard" letter of acceptance and you begin the financial part and still no one has reviewed your MRI's or you. They encourage you to come for an evaluation but it isn't required. And all the while say you will be playing golf again in a few weeks.
I do believe this proceedure could help many people if caught at the right time. I never thought that it would be a permenent solution and therefore the cost is really high. Perhaps if proper aftercare is done by the patient and realistic goals are set, maybe it could be good for some.
For myself, on June 4th, it will be 3 years of dibilitating pain. I just had a new MRI a few weeks ago which shows a lot more deterioration of my lumbar spine at 3 levels with more hernias, tears, foraminal narrowing etc than a year ago. Now the doctors seem more interested in helping me find a more permenant solution but it is like I it just happened with new doctors etc.
Best of luck to all of you,
Dockside Deb
I had a nightmare experience with Laser Spine Institute. Dr. Craig Wolff appeared impaired to me when he operated on my spine at LSI in February 2009. He tore my spinal cord (dura) causing spinal fluid to leak into my body cavity after operating on a level not indicated in the initial examination and surgery order. Sent me to a hotel room to recover. I am in unspeakable pain now. I wondered if Craig Wolff was under the influence when he practiced on me, so on a hunch, I looked up arrest records in Hillsborough County where he practices. Sure enough, he was arrested for driving under the influence about three weeks after my surgery. RUN - don't walk away.(while you still can) http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/pub/default.asp?/Online/qdisp/bn=09012378
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (2)
- Report Abuse
dockside
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 09:58 AM
WOW! That is terrible. I guess I am fortunate that "they" supposedly the doctors rejected me as a good candidate for their proceedures because "they" thought I needed more extensive surgery.
I have heard of other failures and even the sucesses seem to be short lived (a couple of years). It sounded like such a good option.
Are you going to report your suspisions to LSI or a medical board?
I am so sorry you are in so much pain. This is a very supportive web site and there are pain forums you can join to vent some of your frustrations.
I wish you luck in finding some relief for your pain.
Dockside
Hi Debora i would like to know whether you have gone to LSI yet or still thinking.
I am in the same conditions as you are, have attended even their seminar here in Vancouver last week. I am to have either a surgery here sson or decide to go to them, or there is another laser clinic in texas. their fees are less & about 20.000US. My surgeon here was not supportive of laser one. I am quite sure of myself that even i had a little bit of doubt to go for surgery, now i just focus on laser one. May God help us and i wish you all the best. Please let me know if you had done anything since January2009.
- Thank you for your input
- Ranked Helpful (1)
- Report Abuse
dockside
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 06:43 PM
Hi, As I said above, at first LSI accepted me / my case, simply by my MRI faxed report and a brief conversation with a person calling themselves a doctor's assistant. I was not well enough to travel to Tampa or Arizona for a physical assessment. After months and months of communications, I sent them all my MRI's and CT scans on CD. "Apparently", their doctors reviewed my case and said I needed more extensive surgery than they could provide. Eventually, I received a 3 line email from my coordinator denying my surgery for the above reason. When I asked for further information about their assessment of my back and what they thought I did need, no one would answer any further emails from me. At that time they were charging $30,000 US. I guess the recession affected LSI too if the surgery is now $20,000 US. Due to my interest in this surgery I have learned more from people who did not have success and the final outcome of my case, these are the things I would ask you to be aware of are....... - Did they accept you as a patient without viewing your MRI or examining you? - Be cautious of your activities following the surgery. Their 5 day cure may be too good to believe. - They would not give me a personalized letter from a doctor to apply to Canadian Medicare for some financial reimbursement. - Because many conditions are progressive in nature, the laser surgery may not last as long as you hope, therefore seriously consider your own doctor's option. There are many LSI conferences across Canada at this time perhaps you could bring your MRI and speak to the doctor directly. If this was a less expensive surgery, perhaps it would help more people earlier. It seems to be controversial as to how effective laser surgery is long term for backs. Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions. Dockside
Good morning,
I am too looking into this facility in Florida. I am from Ontario, Canada and the doctor's here could not care less. I have 3 lumbar disc bulges and neck problems due to a car accident. I believe there has to be a better solution to the growing number of people requiring this surgery. I am going to have to sell my home as well. I have spoken to so many people who have had surgery at LSI and they highly recommend them. Not one person had anything negative to say about them. Keep me posted on any new findings or info. in Canada.
Sincerely,
BJ