Back Pain

Back pain often starts in the nervous system. So to resolve it effectively, you need a true neurosurgery specialist. At the NeuroSpine Center, the foremost neurosurgeon in the Tampa, Florida, area, Phillip Henkin, MD, has an established reputation for superior patient outcomes. As a Duke University-trained neurosurgeon with more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Henkin draws on his extensive clinical skills and unique personalized patient care approach to help patients with problems like herniated discs and lumbar spinal stenosis. Call the office now or book your consultation online for a long-term solution for your back pain.

What conditions cause chronic back pain?

Acute back pain is a short-term problem usually tied to minor injuries like muscle strains and ligament sprains. With the appropriate medical care, acute lumbar back pain usually resolves with non-surgical management over several weeks or months. 

Non-surgical management usually consist of physical therapy, pain management, epidural steroid injections, non-steroid anti-inflammatory  medications, Tens unit, lumbar stretching exercises, and activity restriction.

Chronic back pain that persists for months or years, and is often a manifestation of a more serious structural problem. Many conditions that cause chronic back pain stem from the neurological system or abnormalities in the spinal structures of discs, vertebral bones, ligaments, joints, and tendons.

At the NeuroSpine Center, Dr. Henkin regularly treats conditions like:

• Pinched nerve
• Sciatica (nerve pain radiating from the lower back down a leg)
• Bulging discs
• Herniated discs
• Degenerative disc disease
• Bone spurs
• Facet synovial cysts
• Spinal stenosis
• Foraminal stenosis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Scoliosis
• Spine fractures
• Spinal instability

As a top-ranked neurosurgeon, Dr. Henkin specializes in treating the full spectrum of disease processes involving the spinal cord, nerves, and brain. This allows him to treat the underlying cause of back pain to permanently improve spine movement and pain relief.

When should I consider surgery for back pain? 

While Dr. Henkin is a renowned neurosurgeon, surgery isn’t his first recommendation in most cases. If there’s a conservative approach, like physical therapy, wearing a brace, or corticosteroid injections, that can help, Dr. Henkin recommends trying it first.

After trying conservative approaches and you still suffer from severe back pain, limited movement, and other problems due to a spinal disorder or injury, minimally invasive spine surgery could be your best recovery route.

How does minimally invasive spine surgery treat back pain?

Minimally invasive spine surgery limits surgical damage to the muscles, discs, ligaments, vertebral bodies,  spinal joints,  and other tissues around your spine while often providing a more permanent back pain solution.

Dr. Henkin has been a minimally invasive spine surgery trailblazer for 25 years. As recently as 20 years ago, traditional surgical approaches with long incisions and considerable muscle cutting were common.

Newer minimally invasive methods produce the same surgical result with incisions of an inch or less and little or no trauma to the spinal muscles, joints, vertebral bones, and ligaments]. These MIS techniques lead to faster and easier patient post-operative recoveries.

Using minimally invasive technology, Dr. Henkin restores fractured vertebrae, removes disc herniations, stabilizes spinal instability, corrects spinal deformities, removes cysts, and more.

He specializes in innovative spine surgery approaches, often using the leading-edge StealthStation™ S8 surgical navigation system to visualize your spinal anatomy in three dimensions, maximize precision, and make personalized decisions for your spinal anatomy.

Call the NeuroSpine Center now or book an appointment online for back pain relief.