Adding-on is a term used by spine surgeons to describe a specific pattern of scoliosis progression after surgery: new curve development below the lowest fused vertebra. A patient who had a thoracic scoliosis corrected with fusion to L1, for example, may develop a progressive lumbar curve below L1 in the months to years after theirContinue reading “Adding-On After AIS Surgery — When the Scoliosis Curve Continues to Progress Below the Fusion”
Author Archives: Dr. Zeeshan Sardar, MD, MSc, F.R.C.S.C
Still Off-Balance After Scoliosis Surgery — Understanding Coronal and Sagittal Imbalance After Fusion
One of the most distressing experiences after scoliosis surgery is looking in the mirror and seeing the same imbalance you expected the surgery to correct. Your shoulders are still uneven. Your trunk still leans to one side. Or you stand upright for the first time after surgery and find that your posture, while different fromContinue reading “Still Off-Balance After Scoliosis Surgery — Understanding Coronal and Sagittal Imbalance After Fusion”
Pseudarthrosis After Scoliosis Surgery — Why Bone Sometimes Doesn’t Fuse and What Can Be Done
Pseudarthrosis is the most common reason patients require revision surgery after scoliosis fusion, yet it is also one of the most frequently unrecognized complications of spinal surgery. Patients with pseudarthrosis are often told for months or years that their X-rays look fine — because on plain X-rays, they often do. The fusion mass can appearContinue reading “Pseudarthrosis After Scoliosis Surgery — Why Bone Sometimes Doesn’t Fuse and What Can Be Done”
Cervical Kyphosis: A Different Kind of Neck Problem
Most patients familiar with cervical spine problems think of disc herniation, nerve compression, or stenosis. Cervical kyphosis is less widely known but represents a distinct and clinically important problem: the neck loses its normal inward curve and develops a forward bend instead, placing the spinal cord under progressive stretch across the kyphotic apex and creatingContinue reading “Cervical Kyphosis: A Different Kind of Neck Problem”
Hyperkyphosis in Older Adults: When a Rounded Back Is a Medical Problem
A rounded upper back is often dismissed as a normal part of aging. For many older adults, it is — a mild increase in thoracic kyphosis within the range of normal variation, requiring no treatment. But for a significant subset, the progressive forward curve of the upper back represents a genuinely abnormal and treatable condition:Continue reading “Hyperkyphosis in Older Adults: When a Rounded Back Is a Medical Problem”
Postoperative Kyphosis: When Prior Spine Surgery Causes a New Forward Curve
Kyphosis that develops as a complication of prior spine surgery is one of the most underrecognized patterns in spinal deformity. Patients who had successful-seeming procedures — cervical laminectomy, lumbar fusion, scoliosis correction — find themselves years later with a new forward curve, progressive symptoms, and often no clear explanation from their treating physicians about whyContinue reading “Postoperative Kyphosis: When Prior Spine Surgery Causes a New Forward Curve”
Cervical Disc Replacement Recovery: What to Expect Week by Week
Recovery from cervical disc replacement is one of the most commonly searched topics by patients who have decided on surgery and are trying to understand what the weeks ahead will look like. This post covers the realistic recovery trajectory — what most patients experience, what the activity restrictions are, and where cervical disc replacement recoveryContinue reading “Cervical Disc Replacement Recovery: What to Expect Week by Week”
The Hybrid Cervical Construct: Disc Replacement After a Prior Fusion
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is among the most commonly performed and most successful procedures in spine surgery. But like any fusion, it has a known long-term consequence: the segments directly above and below the fused level are exposed to increased mechanical stress, and over years to decades, a portion of patients develop symptomaticContinue reading “The Hybrid Cervical Construct: Disc Replacement After a Prior Fusion”
Two-Level Cervical Disc Replacement: When Is It an Option?
Cervical disc disease most commonly affects a single level — and single-level cervical disc replacement is by far the most studied and most commonly performed configuration. But disc degeneration does not always confine itself to one level. For patients with significant disease at two adjacent levels — C4–5 and C5–6, or C5–6 and C6–7, forContinue reading “Two-Level Cervical Disc Replacement: When Is It an Option?”
Why I Was Told I Don’t Qualify for Cervical Disc Replacement — A Second Look
One of the most common reasons patients reach out for a second opinion on cervical spine surgery is a version of the same story: they researched cervical disc replacement, asked their surgeon about it, and were told they don’t qualify. Sometimes the explanation was detailed. More often it was brief — a mention of arthritis,Continue reading “Why I Was Told I Don’t Qualify for Cervical Disc Replacement — A Second Look”