Jeffrey Carlson, MD, performed a three-level lumbar fusion on a 37-year-old patient at Newport News-based Coastal Virginia Surgery Center.
The procedure, done March 3, was one of the first three-level lumbar fusions done at an ASC in the U.S. The patient, a former semiprofessional baseball player, had back and leg pain for more than 10 years and tried several treatments before.
"Spine surgery techniques and pain management have so improved over the past ten years that I routinely perform outpatient lumbar fusions in single and two levels," Dr. Carlson said in a March 11 news release. "Now, we have seen that same evolution with three-level lumbar fusion surgical techniques. Patients experience much less pain and can be home the same day."
Dr. Carlson also implanted Boston Scientific's MRI-compatible spinal cord stimulator at the ASC. Coastal Virginia Surgery Center has seven orthopedic surgeons and two pain management specialists.