Many patients believe that minimally invasive methods are the best option “Spine Surgery Using Lasers.” Laser spine surgery, on the other hand, is never recommended. Dr. Stephen P. Banco, formerly of The Reading Neck and Spine Center, has spent years educating patients about the dangers of lasers in spinal surgery and will continue to do so at his new comprehensive spinal treatment center, Keystone Spine and Pain Management. The truth about laser spine surgery is that it is ineffective and not covered by insurance.
Laser spine surgeons, in essence, execute the same process as any other spine surgeon, but with the addition of a laser “Laser” is used at the conclusion of the procedure. Patients, on the other hand, face an additional fee of up to $30,000 for this additional service! It’s the equivalent of purchasing a car but being charged $30,000 for floor mats. The FDA has not approved laser spine surgery, and it is not covered by insurance. It will almost probably not be covered under Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) or any other private insurance in the future.
Is the Laser Spine Institute legitimate?
In order to gain business, Laser Spine Surgeons spread a variety of myths and fallacies.
H. Gordon Deen, a neurosurgeon at the famed Mayo Clinic, claimed in a 2009 article, “At Mayo Clinic, we do not employ or advocate laser spine surgery.” Although laser spine surgery has been known since the 1980s, it has never been tested in a randomized controlled trial to assess its efficacy. Most neurosurgeons avoid using lasers for spine surgery because “there are no evident benefits to laser surgery over well-established, effective spine surgery techniques.” This appears to be strange. A number of Spine Surgeons and big practices that include Spine Surgeons, such as the Laser Spine Institute, have actively advertised surgical techniques for which there has never been a controlled clinical research to prove their usefulness. In contrast, there are many opponents of laser spine surgery, and in the context of vehicle accident cases, this operation has served no purpose other than to line the pockets of unscrupulous physicians, in my opinion.
Laser spine surgery, in my opinion (and that of the majority of Orthopedic Spine Surgeons and Neurosurgeons), is at best a procedure(s) that may be useful for a very small segment of those suffering from chronic back or neck pain caused by discogenic (i.e., disc-related) pathology. Many surgeons who perform laser spine surgery, particularly those who specialize in laser spine surgery, tend to use these procedures as a one-size-fits-all approach to treating all types of back and neck pathology and symptomatology. It may be claimed that many surgeons seek such procedures for financial benefit rather than ethical reasons.
In their brochures or mailings, medical practices advocating laser spine surgery, or the surgeons who actively conduct such operations, will frequently say that laser spine surgery is minimally invasive. This is sometimes misleading because laser spine surgery is a severe procedure that necessitates an incision (sizeable opening). Cutting bone, ligament, and joint fragments out by tearing through muscle. The bone, ligaments, and joint fragments that are removed are frequently healthy and normal, and removing them causes permanent injury to the area, resulting in pathology and symptomatology. As a result, the patient will require further procedures and operations in the future to address the complications that the laser spine surgery has produced or aggravated. In other words, the vast majority of laser spine surgeries serve no genuine medical purpose and are frequently utilized to treat disease that is minor or non-existent, with the patient developing persistent pathology as a result of such dubious medical procedures. The procedures are also sold to those who have severe symptoms caused by extensive discogenic pathology for which LaserSpine surgery is not a viable treatment option.
For greedy Orthopedic Spine physicians and Neurosurgeons, laser spine operations like the percutaneous endoscopic discectomy have acted as cash cows. Attempting to cure or decompress a disc with an annular tear that is symptomatic in nature by drilling a new hole in an already damaged disc is nonsensical, according to legitimate research. Placing even a small hole in the disc’s edge exposes it to significant corruption. The hole will very certainly worsen to the point where the patient will get degenerative disc degeneration. The hole will most likely spread and could extend all the way into the nucleus, causing another annular tear. As a result, the laser spine surgery may put the patient on a one-way route to needing a fusion to fix the injured disc.
In recent months, the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa has come under fire for selling a series of very similar laser spine operations. Author David Armstrong demonstrates in a Bloomberg piece that Laser Spine Institute and its competitors offer laser spine surgery that lacks any independent research that documents the procedure’s success or outcomes. In truth, Laser Spine Institute has a shady reputation, with a rate of malpractice claims per 1000 surgeries that is several times higher than the average for all outpatient surgical centers in the United States. That is very incredible. Medical practices are doing surgeries with no independent research to back them up, and the malpractice rate is many times higher than the national average. It makes me wonder why anyone in their right mind would go to the Laser Spine Institute for surgery.
The fact that Laser Spine Institute frequently charges more than $30,000.00 for a procedure is even more revealing. This is at least twice as much as Aetna (the third largest health insurance company in the United States) will pay for a laser-free surgery, according to the author. Furthermore, the author shows that several of the Laser Spine Institute’s surgeons are shareholders in the company. At Laser Spine Institute, individual surgeons do up to 5000 surgeries every year. It begs the question of whether these procedures are performed for legitimate reasons or for the financial incentives they provide to the corporation’s owners.
When a plaintiff attorney submits a demand for the at-fault party’s bodily injury coverage after the claimant has undergone laser spine surgery, many motor insurance carriers simply red flag the claim. Many interventional pain management specialists (such as Physiatrists and Anesthesiologists) offer the same procedures and bill between $5000.00 and $8000.00 for a procedure that Surgeons bill in excess of $30,000.00. At trial, defense attorneys focus their arguments on the billing expenses for such operations. The argument is that the surgery is not only questionable in nature, but that the objective of doing it is centered on financial gain rather than the patient’s well-being. In recent years, a number of cases involving percutaneous endoscopic discectomies have resulted in defense verdicts throughout Florida, particularly in Pinellas County.
As a personal injury lawyer in Clearwater, I’ve noticed a significant increase in the number of surgeons in Pinellas, Manatee, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties who offer laser spine surgery and market attorneys and other physicians for clients/patients who have suffered back or neck injuries in the last five years.
Matthew A. Dolman, Esq., is a personal injury lawyer in Clearwater who focuses on first and third-party insurance claims involving vehicle accidents, wrongful death, traumatic brain injury, motorcycle accidents, catastrophic injuries, and insurance carrier bad faith. Sibley Dolman Gipe Accident Injury Lawyers, PA is a personal injury and civil trial legal practice with offices in Clearwater and Bradenton that litigates first and third-party insurance claims in Pinellas, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Sarasota Counties.
What is the average cost of laser spine surgery?
Many patients who are considering laser spine surgery are unaware that many insurance companies still consider the operation experimental, which means they are unwilling to fund the accompanying costs.
This is significant since laser spine operations can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $90,000, and many patients are surprised to learn that their insurance does not cover them, leaving them to foot the tab on their own.
For example, the now-defunct Laser Spine Institute cost around $30,000 for spine surgery, which is more than double what Aetna would pay, and Cigna won’t cover the laser portion at all.
Does Medicare pay for laser therapy for back pain?
A: If the surgeon and the facility where the procedure is conducted are both in network with Medicare, Laser Spine Surgery is covered.
Is Sonospine covered by insurance?
Sonospine accepts a wide range of insurance plans and policies. We do not, however, accept Medicaid at this time. Depending on the type of insurance and the state, coverage may differ. Please call us at 888-957-7463 and we’ll be happy to talk about your insurance coverage choices with you.
Why is Laser Spine Institute closed?
The Laser Spine Institute shuttered its doors in March, stating it was unable to secure funding in order to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and continue operations. Some of the commercial decisions that led to the shutdown are detailed in a new article in the Tampa Bay Times.
1. Laser Spine Institute has been involved in a lawsuit with a former partner, Joe Samuel Bailey, since 2010, alleging “breach of fiduciary duty, defamation, slander, violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, conspiracy, and tortious interference” against the company’s founders. Mr. Bailey was given $6.85 million by a judge in 2017, and Laser Spine appealed; in June, the judge awarded Mr. Bailey $260 million.
2. According to the investigation, Laser Spine Institute continued to pay huge wages and bonuses to executives as the company accumulated debt.
3. According to a lawsuit filed by the managing partner of KapilaMukamal, the entity that collects and distributes Laser Spine Institute’s assets, the company incurred $150 million in debt in 2015, and corporate executives fraudulently transferred $110 million from a loan. Laser Spine was also aware in 2015 that it required emergency liquidity, according to the complaint.
4. In 2016, the corporation opted to build a $56 million corporate headquarters and surgical facility despite its debt. It lay off 6% of its workers in the same year.
Is Laser Spine Institute still in business?
After a series of financial setbacks and lawsuits, Tampa-based Laser Spine Institute closed its doors in March 2019, 14 years after it first opened.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Laser Spine Institute was founded in 2005 by three physicians, James St. Louis, MD, Glenn Hamburg, MD, and Michael Perry, MD, with nine personnel and one operation room.
At its peak, the practice employed over 1,000 people and operated surgery sites in Tampa, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
It built a $56 million, 176,000-square-foot headquarters in Tampa in 2016. The practice made $220 million in income the next year, up from $216.9 million the year before.
Despite its excellent revenue growth, Laser Spine Institute was mired in a slew of major lawsuits.
A competitor spine center filed the most major complaint in 2006, accusing Laser Spine Institute of breach of fiduciary duty, defamation, tortious interference, and violation of a Florida law, among other things.
A federal court ordered Laser Spine Institute to pay the complainant $264 million in damages in 2018. The practice’s demise began with a spate of operation center closures and a decreased operating cost structure.
After the banks froze Laser Spine Institute’s accounts and deprived them of cash in March 2019, the practice closed its Tampa headquarters and remaining locations, laying off 354 employees.
Highwoods Properties, a real estate investment firm, leased three of the Tampa headquarters’ six floors in February 2020.
The surgery center in the facility is still vacant, but sports retailer Fanatics Brands has leased 92,000 square feet of the 176,000-square-foot property.
What is the success rate of laser spine surgery?
Lasers are increasingly being used to treat back pain, including common conditions like sciatica, which is a searing pain that travels down the back of your leg.
According to the American Journal of Neuroradiology, the most common cause of sciatica is a herniated disc, which affects roughly 1.5 million people in the United States.
What the Science Suggests
Approximately 20% to 40% of those who are affected will require surgery to find relief. Although traditional lumbar disc surgery entails going under the knife, there are less invasive options available. Percutaneous laser disc decompression (PLDD) is a type of laser spine surgery.
“It’s a lovely concept in your head: take a laser and zap it,” said Mark McLaughlin, MD, a neurosurgeon. “It has a more precise ring to it, with a notion of precision.” It has that ring to it, but it does not offer what the patient expects.” Dr. McLaughlin founded Princeton Brain, Spine, and Sports Medicine, specializing in trigeminal neuralgia and cervical spine surgery.
A scientific comparison of percutaneous laser disc decompression (PLDD) with both conventional survey and conservative management of lumbar disc herniation is needed, according to a 2006 paper published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR). Despite the small sample size of only 30 patients, a more recent study from 2019 concluded that the use of PLDD as a noninvasive procedure reduces pain and disability in patients.
A 2017 study published in AJNR followed two groups of persons who had sciatica surgery. A total of 57 individuals underwent conventional microdiscectomy, while another 55 underwent PLDD. The study indicated that patients who had conventional surgery had a re-operation rate of 21%, whereas those who received PLDD had a re-operation rate of 52 percent after two years.
According to the study, “despite the fact that the rate of reoperation in the PLDD group was higher than expected, surgery could be avoided in 48 percent of those patients who were originally candidates for surgery.” “As a non-surgical approach, percutaneous laser disc decompression could have a role in the treatment arsenal of sciatica caused by confined herniated discs.”
In a 2015 study, the number of reoperations was shown to be lower for both surgeries, but much lower for conventional surgery (16 percent against 38 percent). “Overall, a PLDD strategy with postponed surgery if necessary resulted in noninferior outcomes at one year.”
Drawbacks of Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression
Dr. McLaughlin, on the other hand, is less optimistic about laser surgery. According to Dr. McLaughlin, lasers emit heat and do not bend around corners like instruments do, nor do they have a precise depth of understanding or penetration. “I don’t believe it’s well suited for “regular spine surgery,” such as decompression, bone spur removal, or reconstructive surgery.
According to Dr. McLaughlin, the conventional approach for a single-level disc herniation causing sciatica is a minimally invasive microdiscectomy. A normal discectomy, which requires a little larger incision than a microdiscectomy, is another alternative.
“A laser will not bring you where you want to go once you get there,” Dr. McLaughlin added. “Bone biters, a drill, even a shaver, anything to debulk the disc constricting the nerve. A laser isn’t the right tool for the job.”
According to McLaughlin, the benefits of a laser do not exceed the possible risks. “My judgment is that occurrences of recurrence are definitely higher with laser decompression because they’re not going to be able to complete the job that physical instruments can,” he said, implying a higher recurrence rate and a higher incidence of heat-related nerve injury.
Nerves come in and out of the spine, curving around corners, and the laser cannot bend or twist, according to Dr. McLaughlin.
When to Use Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression
Laser surgery, according to orthopedic spine specialist Colin Haines, MD, is well suited to operations that require caution around soft tissue and muscle, such as ultra-minimally invasive surgeries.
According to Haines, any soft tissue that should not be pressed could benefit from laser surgery, which could include spinal stenosis and nerve pressure, soft tissue nerve pressure, facet edema, and sciatica caused by a herniated disc.
Dr. Haines, a spine surgeon at Reston, Virginia’s Virginia Spine Institute (VSI), compared it to a grape. In traditional disc removal operations, an incision is made to remove bone and the grape. The laser is utilized in laser spine surgery to stiffen and shrink the grape, much like a raisin.
“It all boils down to the laser.” “It’s focused light, or heat,” Dr. Haines explained. “Through heating, the laser helps us to shrink tissues.” “There are times when we can do that very effectively,” he explained. In some circumstances, where heat is not appropriate, such as a narrow corridor or nerves that prevent visibility of the issue region, the laser may not be the ideal alternative.
According to Haines, laser surgery can decrease soft tissue like herniations. Endoscopic surgery may be a preferable alternative in other cases. To relieve pressure, a small camera is inserted through an incision and carefully navigated around nerves. “The spine has a lot of nooks and crannies,” he explained. “To access to trouble locations, you may need to gently pull nerves aside and remove a small amount of tissue.”
Recovery from Laser Disc Decompression
One challenge with spine surgery is gaining access to the spine, which is surrounded by a lot of muscle. According to Dr. Haines, this entails large incisions and a lot of muscle cutting, which results in a prolonged healing time.
The length of time it takes to recover is determined by the size of the procedure. Traditional spine surgery takes three to six months, while endoscopic and laser surgery takes three to six days, according to Dr. Haines.
The recovery time from incisional pain, according to Dr. McLaughlin, is one to two weeks “taking it easy” for another two to four weeks, depending on one’s pre-surgery condition and length of illness.
Laser surgery proponents claim that recuperation time is reduced to one week. “That’s because it’s not doing its function of compressing the nerve, according to Dr. McLaughlin. “You’re probably placing the laser on a disc and reducing it a little,” he explained.
According to a research given at the American Institute of Physics conference in 2010, the average time to return to normal work after PLDD is successful is one week. The study, which included over 20,000 surgeries, discovered a success rate ranging from 70% to 89 percent. A recurrence rate of 4% to 5% was discovered after a 23-year follow-up period.
According to Dr. Haines, 90 percent of the time, whether it’s a disc herniation, nerves, or back discomfort, problems can be resolved without surgery.
Dr. Haines expects that as laser technology improves and doctors grow more skilled, laser surgery will become more common. “It isn’t mainstream yet, in my opinion. “Adopting new technologies in health care comes with a lot of obstacles,” he stated.
Patients considering decompression treatments, on the other hand, should seek the advice of a fellowship-trained spinal surgeon so that they can make an informed decision, according to Dr. McLaughlin.
How long is recovery from laser spine surgery?
If you have a herniated or bulging disc in your back that hasn’t responded to conservative treatment, you might be a suitable candidate for laser back surgery. Laser back surgery is a minimally invasive method that has assisted many people in recovering from spinal disorders without the need for invasive open spine surgery. One of the most significant advantages of laser back surgery is that it is a quick operation with a quick recovery time.
Doctors can fix your spine with laser back surgery without having to make a major incision. There is no need to cut through muscle, bone, or other tissue; instead, the doctor makes one or two small incisions near the damaged area of the spine, about the size of a needle. A laser probe, a camera, and any other tools are inserted into these incisions by the doctor.
Traditional spine surgery takes twice as long as laser spine surgery. This is due to the fact that there is no need to make a major incision, sew it, cut through bone, or utilize hardware to fuse the bones together.
Laser back surgery usually takes little more than an hour to complete. You will, however, be required to be in the office for many hours prior to and following the surgery for preparation and observation. You may go home after the physician has examined you and you are no longer drugged.
There is no need for a hospital stay after laser spine surgery because recuperation takes place totally at home. Traditional spine surgery has a significantly longer recovery period and is much more uncomfortable. The majority of patients who work at a desk can return to work in roughly a week. Activity is restricted for a few weeks after surgery, and physical therapy may be required. Within 6 weeks of surgery, you should be fully recovered.
After laser spine surgery, patients can take some actions to ensure that they heal as rapidly as possible. You can, for example, be aware of the signs of complications such as infection so that you can contact your doctor if any issues arise; you can be proactive about moving around as much as recommended and attending physical therapy; and you can avoid over-exerting yourself during the immediate recovery period.
Can laser spine surgery help degenerative disc disease?
If you’re thinking about having back surgery, keep in mind that while minimally invasive surgery with a laser can help with some diseases, it’s not a cure-all, and it’s not for everyone.
How does laser surgery compare with other methods?
Lasers can help certain patients, but only for a limited number of ailments. For those with degenerative spine condition, for example, experts rarely advocate utilizing a laser. Here’s how it compares to other options.
Surgery as it has always been done. The surgeon’s incision in the classic “open” method passes through the skin to the muscle. The surgeon then dissects the muscles away from the spine to create a clean route for working on the spine. While this has the benefit of allowing access to problem regions, it also runs the risk of injuring the surrounding soft tissue, which can result in prolonged hospital stays.
The term “minimally invasive surgery” refers to surgery that is performed with the least amount In comparison to a standard operation, the surgeon makes a smaller incision. He or she tunnels to the source of the discomfort with an instrument. Because the muscles are not lifted from the spine, there is less pain following surgery and the recovery time is frequently shorter, allowing people to resume their normal activities sooner.
Does insurance cover cold laser therapy?
After the initial treatment, most patients do not experience complete relief or remission of their pain problems. It normally takes 8 to 30 sessions, depending on the severity and length of the disease.
Patients are frequently required to visit the doctor for therapy at least twice a week.
Old injuries may be worsened for a few days following treatments, but this sensation is usually only temporary, lasting only a few days for most patients.
Cold laser therapy is not covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Some big medical insurance companies help with cost, while others refuse to pay for any of the therapy.