What to Expect at Your Spinal Surgery Consultation
You may be scared of going to your first spinal surgery consultation with a spine surgeon. There is no need to be scared, our neurosurgeons are professionals that know how to deal with back pain symptoms and issues. They are trained to do non-invasive procedures, minimally invasive procedures, pain management injections, and more.
Just because you are going to see a spine surgeon does not mean that you will need to get surgery. Most of our patients do not end up needing to get spine surgery or even a minimally invasive procedure. It is better to come in to get a piece of mind and see what your treatment options may be.
Imaging
When you contact Florida Surgery Consultants for a Spine Surgeon consultation, you will be asked if you have had any imaging done such as an MRI. Our spine surgeons need a recent MRI done that is less than 6 months old in order to schedule you. If you have not had any imaging, we will schedule a consultation with one of our physician’s assistant to script you out to an MRI facility in order for you to get your imaging done.
MRI Reports
After your MRI reports have been sent in we will schedule you to see one of our board certified spine surgeons. Once the MRI reports are in our system the spine surgeon will review the images before you come into your consultation.
New Patient Information
Checking into one of our facilities you will then sign in with the front desk girl and she will hand you some paperwork to fill out that has some information such as how you got your injury, medical history, and basic facts. Once filled out completely the front desk girl will receive the information input it into our system so the nurses and surgeon can view it.
Patient Exam
A nurse will come out and greet you and guide you to your exam room. The new patient paperwork has already been reviewed by the nurse. Your assigned nurse will then ask you some questions about your back pain such as how long has it been affecting you, what are the areas, what is the pain level you are experiencing, and what does the pain feel like.
Going over the MRI
Once the questions have been finished your spine surgeon will come in and review the MRI images with you. He will discuss the areas that he sees that is causing your back pain and explain to you what conditions your spine may have. Going over the images with you will give you a better understanding of the underlying causes of your back pain.
Physical Exam
The spine surgeon will then do a physical exam checking your vitals, mobility, and reaction. He will also check your senses to verify the spine condition that you may have.
Results
During this process, the spine surgeon will review the information with you and then give you some options to help your back pain problems. This may be scripting anti-inflammatory medication, conservative therapy (chiropractic or physical), scheduling you for an Epidural Steroid Injection, or giving you a surgical recommendation if the spine condition is serious.
Quality of Life
Communication is extremely important between our spine surgeon and our patient. In the end of the spinal surgery consultation we want the patient to understand everything that they spine surgeon has said. We want our patients to understand the symptoms and potential issues that you may have.
Getting a spinal surgery consultation does not always mean you will need surgical intervention. Since our spine surgeons are trained to do many procedures that do not involve surgery we are able to help patients get a better quality of life without surgical intervention.
