Donald Corenman MD DC | Spine Surgeon Colorado

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

Author

Posts
BamaMike
Member

June 2, 2012 at 4:16 am

Post count: 3

in reply to: Neck & Shoulder Pain w/ MRI Results #6302

I ended up having ACDF yesterday in Birmingham, Al. My left arm pretty well went numb and I was also having memory loss. I have been wondering if the memory loss could be traced back to spinal cord compression.

My Pain Management Dr has talked to me about trying Suboxone for pain management since I was starting to worried about taking pain meds with all the tylenol and the damage it could be doing to my liver. He felt Suboxone would treat my pain well. I was willing to give it a try. It really did not work very well and I felt drugged after taking it.

I informed the nurses at pre-admit and also all the nurses and the anesthesiologist before I went into surgery. I came out of surgery in extreme pain and they could NOT control it due to the suboxone blocking all the pain meds they gave me post-op. The Doctor in post-op decided to give me morphine any way and he thought it would not hurt me and could possibly help me out. They decided to put me in Neuro ICU for the night to better help manage my pain. I came out of surgery around 11:30 am yesterday and the half-life of the Suboxone was up about 6pm. I pretty well had to just tough it out for about 6 hours. Very painful! But the surgery relieved all my left arm pain, occipital headaches.
All the feeling has come back in my arm.

I spoke with your nurse and was in the process of sending her my MRI disk and paper work. Once I lost all the feeling in my arm I decided along with my Neurosurgeon that I needed to get this surgery done ASAP.

I am glad that I went ahead and had the surgery as the results have been amazing so far.

I have a Medtronic piece of PEEK and Medtronic plate and screws in my neck.

To all the people who are reading this: Don’t be scared to have this surgery done. Find a qualified surgeon and you will get great results. I do not believe laser surgery is justified in neck and back surgery. My Neurosurgeon has “fixed” over 20 people who went to Florida and paid a ton of money to have spine surgery done via laser. The laser places in Florida are just there to make a ton of money for the owners.

Thank you soooo very much for all your help. I hope to never have this issue again but if I do, I will be headed to Colorado to visit your clinic.

Warmest regards,

Mike Couch

BamaMike
Member

May 29, 2012 at 11:19 am

Post count: 3

in reply to: Neck & Shoulder Pain w/ MRI Results #6279

Dr. Corenman-

Thank you very much for taking time away from your family on a holiday to answer my questions.

You asked:
You do also have some cord compression as noted by the radiologist. Do you have symptoms of imbalance, incoordination or symptoms in any other extremity? Yes, but I had not tied the two together. I have noticed recently that I will lose my balance relatively easy. I will be walking and lose balance and bump in door frames, desk..

I most certainly get relief by placing my left forearm on the top of my head. Due to the sensitivity of my scalp during the occipital nerve related headaches I am not able to do this often. I have pain at a 4-5 in my neck at all times. When it flares to a 7-8 (5-6 times daily) the headaches intensify also and my scalp is just too sensitive to touch.

I sell medical grade plastics used in instrumentation and sizing trials. With my career, I have had the opportunity to meet many Orthopedic surgeons and Neurosurgeons. A few days after my MRI I ran into one of the Neurosurgeons I work with and he looked at my MRI and did a quick exam. As part of the exam he had me squeeze his fingers, he pushed and pulled on my forearms in different positions and noted that I have significant weakness in my left arm. Since your first reply I tried the push up and I did not have equal strength in both arms. My left arm was rather weak. I saw this Physician before for my lumbar back condition and he sent me to pain management since I was reluctant at that time to have fusion at L4-L5 so he is pretty familiar with my condition.

After the quick exam and reviewing my MRI he said his opinion was the disc needed to come out weather I used him or not. He urged me to not wait around like I did with my low back and stated that I should be concerned with possible permanent nerve or spinal cord issues if my condition deteriorated further. He lead me to believe that the cervical spine might not be as forgiving as the lumbar spine.

I am much more concerned about my cervical spine issue than I was about my lumbar problem. Maybe because I am much older now and take these kind of things more serious. I have a 20 year old daughter, 15 year old son and a 4 year old son. Being 45 with a 4 y/o I need to get healthy and stay health so I will be around and able to participate in raising him.

A couple of quick questions if you would: My L4-L5 disc has flared up recently and I was thinking of getting a block. Based on your experience in your practice would you consider doing a block at L4-L5 AND C6-C7 at the same time? Or, do you find it better to spread them out over a several week period?

I now have a total of three disc problems. C6-C7, L4-L5 and one in my thoracic spine that was found by chance via MRI as part of the workup before I participated in Spinal Restoration Bio-Stat fibran sealant clinical trial. It has not caused any issue and I don’t remember the exact location.

What could be the cause of all these ruptures? I am 45 years old and other than this I am relatively healthy. Would this be a genetic issue? If it’s a genetic issue is this something my children could possibly experience later in life?

What are your thoughts on the use of sealants in disc? It is my understanding that sealants have been used in Europe for many years. It looks like there are several companies working on FDA approval for sealants. Are you aware of any that are currently approved for use in the USA? Are you familiar with the Biostat Biologx Fibran Sealant? It would be nice if there was a product that was a more permanent nature. I was sedated so I am not sure about the pain involved during the procedure but the post procedure pain was significant and they asked that we try to manage it with OTC meds if possible. If narcotics were required if would not disqualify you from the trial. I don’t think anyone who received the actual study drug would be able to get by on OTC meds I know i was not able too.

Thanks again and I will be contacting your office and look forward to seeing you soon.

Warmest regards,

Mike Couch
Author

Posts

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Average rating:

81 reviews

Eric S

Sep 26, 2021

by Eric S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Successful pars repair at 46 years old

Back in November of 2018 (at 46 years old) I came from Vancouver BC to have a pars repair done with Dr. Donald Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. I'm finally posting this review nearly three years later in late 2021. The reason I waited so long was I wanted to know the final result before I posted my review. Unfortunately in that time Dr. Corenman has retired. Nevertheless, I want to post this review of Dr. Corenman and his staff at the Steadman Clinic in their excellent treatment of my L5 pars interarticularis.

I fractured my pars at age 42 back in 2014 when rolling on the gym floor, and was denied treatment by the Canadian healthcare system, probably due to my age. First my GP told me there was no surgical option for a pars defect, which was quite incorrect! I tried to live with it, but the symptoms worsened (periodic random spine slippage and weeks of resultant pain after just bending over to tie my shoe, so I eventually learned to mostly squat and hardly bend). When I finally consulted with Canadian spine surgeons, I was told they believed my pars defect had been congenital (since birth). This was absurd, considering I had done extreme martial arts (including jiu jitsu) for years prior, as well as 5 years of reinforcing steel full time in my 20s, probably the hardest job on the back you can find. No pars defect like mine would possibly have allowed this--ergo it was impossible that I had had the defect since birth. I did however have an asymptomatic congenital spina bifida occulta that made me more susceptible to a pars fracture. In 2014 in one instant, I went from having the strongest back people I knew said they'd ever seen, to being unable to safely bend over and tie my shoe without a non-negligible risk of my spine slipping randomly (which would lead to weeks of pain after each occurrence). This was due to the unilateral L5 pars defect, otherwise known as spondylolysis. It was when lying in pain on the floor 4 years later after maybe the 6th spine slippage event post injury, that I had had enough, and resolved to have surgery. If Canada's "universal health care" said no, I would make lemonade from lemons, and find the very best surgeon in the world at pars repairs. That was Dr. Donald Corenman. Dr. Corenman back in 2018 ran a website https://neckandback.com/ that dedicated many pages to the science of every aspect of pars repairs, from eligibility (good discs on MRI), to best surgical techniques (minimal open compared to minimally invasive), best imaging to use (i.e., O-Arm with Stealth imaging vs. older fluoroscopy), the ideal amount of BMP to use and why not use too much or too little, and much more, all to do with pars repairs, pages upon pages of his site just on the pars, with scientific references and his own extensive expert opinion. As a health research statistician, I was very impressed with this. It was in stark contrast to the websites of other spine surgeons which barely gave the pars a word or two, focusing almost exclusively on fusions. I had found the best surgeon in the world for pars repairs, and so after Dr. Corenman personally screened my MRI to ensure my discs were healthy, I booked the surgery.

Being 46 years old at the time of surgery in 2018, with a 4-year-old pars fracture from 2014 combined with a congenital SBO meant my pars fragment was somewhat atrophied, but it was "very solid", said Dr. Corenman in the operative report. Nevertheless, it was challenging with two things to fix, the pars and SBO, and OR time was around 4 hours. Recovery over the following months was guided by a very clear "Spine binder" from the Steadman Clinic with strict rules of "no BLT" (no bending, lifting or twisting), and illustrated physiotherapy guidelines. They even warned patients to avoid fish oil supplements, which could excessively dampen inflammation and hence slow bone healing. They answered many questions I had during months of recovery, with responses coming from the very supportive Lori Fugate (then director of Dr. Corenman's practice), and Ehrich Bean (then physician's assistant at the practice), as well as a couple calls with Dr. Corenman himself after two of the CT scans. Ehrich Bean offered great advice for taking the spine binder conservatively due to the nature of pars repairs vs. fusions. The final post-op CT scan I had was a couple weeks ago at 34 months post-op, and Dr. Corenman had retired, but I got a very positive and informative call from Eric Strauch (current PA at the Steadman Clinic under Dr. Corenman's replacement there, and who had also worked with Dr. Corenman previously). The staff at the Steadman Clinic were extremely supportive all the way through the process. I should mention, the local Canadian spine surgeon did offer me very good post-operative support including antibiotics as needed to deal with a mild surface incision-site infection early on, booking numerous x-rays when I felt something was amiss, as well as booking all four of my post-op CT scans. I am very grateful for that support also.

My final result shows plenty of solid bone across the pars and a healed SBO, with my vertebral body now a solid bone ring instead of being broken at two places as it was pre-op. Does my spine hold up in the real world? You bet! I have recently dug and moved several yards of dirt and sand and gravel by myself (shovel and wheelbarrow!) to fix our water main, pulled roots from the yard, moved several "portable" (these are HUGE) air conditioners up several flights of stairs my myself, and lifted weights. I now run 2 miles (3.2 KM) several times weekly with a hard 100 meter dash in the middle. I bend deeply before each run I go on, with no spine slippage. My spine feels amazing. I can bend over to do exercise, or real word tasks, with no risk of spine slippage.

My sincere thanks to God, Dr. Donald Corenman, Lori Fugate, Ehrich Bean, Eric Strauch, and the Steadman Clinic, as well as the Canadian spine surgeon who offered me excellent post-operative care back in Canada. You have all given me a new lease on life.

Sincerely,
Eric S

Robert S

May 11, 2021

by Robert S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Back Fusion Surgery

I had my entire lumbar spine fused in November of 2018. I had scoliosis , with pinched nerves that were so painful I could hardly walk - and standing for more than a few minutes was impossible. Even sitting was painful.
The fusion surgery produced immediate relief! And the recovery was much easier than I expected.
To this day I can do all the activities I love from hiking, to standing in a stream fly fishing to riding my bike long distances - or just walking down the street with my wife.
Kudos to Dr. Corenman and his staff, (including the two Erics) for taking such good care of me!

Leslie R

Jul 9, 2020

by Leslie R on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

TLIF

I had my TLIF surgery on 6/24/2020 by Dr. Corenman, I can not say enough good things about the Dr or his staff. I was always treated with respect and explained everything throughly, that made it easy for everyone to understand. I highly recommend Dr. Corenman and the Steadman Clinic.

Submit your review
First Name, Last Initial:
Email:
Review Title:
Rating:	1 2 3 4 5
Review:

Check this box to confirm you are human.
Submit Cancel

BamaMike

Forum Replies Created