"There are many minimally invasive spine procedures being performed today. Some, such as epidural steroid injections are often used with little appreciation or understanding of the patient's real diagnosis ("shotgun therapy") and sometimes with no understanding that the patient does not even have an anatomic epidural space (i.e. obliterated by prior spine surgery). Most certainly, in the "physician do no harm" department ill-advised and ill-performed epidural steroid injections have created devastating lifelong problems for significant numbers of unsuspecting patients.

Other minimally invasive procedures such as percutaneous radio-frequency facet blocks (PRFFNB) which have benefited many over many decades are therapeutic, but destructive, in that they cauterize normal nerves to achieve their effect. The value of such a procedure is that the benefit to the patient outweighs the minimal risk."

Source: Dr। Charles Burton, M.D. read more at http://www.burtonreport.com/InfSpine/RestorativeSpineCare,Min-Invasive.htm

If there is one person in this country that I consider an expert on the spine, it is Dr. Burton. I thank him for giving me permission to use some of his information.

As I may have said before, the procedures performed on me in the early 1980s have destroyed my life, yet the very surgeon that I am presently seeing wants to do fusions on the affected discs. But when I try to talk to him about the present condition of the nerves in my spinal cord he want even talk about it. It is like he don't believe there is a condition called "Adhesive Arocnoditis." Evidently they aren't taught the failures in medical school. This much I do know. I will be staying up until 4:00 A.M. in the morning. Why? I am in to much pain to sleep. Try living like that for a few weeks much less years like I have done.