Donald Corenman MD DC | Spine Surgeon Colorado

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Jumpball12
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January 6, 2017 at 4:06 pm

Post count: 2

in reply to: antalgic scoliosis, can it become permanent? #24064

Thank you for your response Dr. Corenman. Is it common for people with this condition to have their field of view be distorted as is mine? I’ve done as much searching online as I can, and while there are stories about the rotated hips/twisted torso from low back injuries, I can’t find a case of people reporting that their vision feels “twisted”.

Also, is the cause for this going to usually be muscle spasms that are holding things out of line? Like I said I get several trigger point full, rope like spots in my thigh/hamstring/glute/hip area on this side, and the psoas is visibly thicker and sticks out further on my hips when looking in a mirror. I do a lot of deep tissue work on the areas, and I’ve been doing glute medius specific exercises and overall glute activation exercises as well. I also do like you said and try to force myself into correct alignment, although it feels like pressure and blocking in my glute/lower back on that side and I can never get completely square. Also, is it common for the leg and foot on the injured side to want to pronate outward from what you’ve seen?

I guess I’ll just give it a little more time and work, and if it doesn’t get better after a month or two more, I’ll try to get an mri to see if the disc is injured or if I tore/ruptured the glute medius or something like that happened.

Jumpball12
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January 6, 2017 at 2:37 am

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in reply to: antalgic scoliosis, can it become permanent? #24054

Hi. I was sitting in a chair twisting to the left about 5 months ago, kinda feeling a stretch in my thoracic spine and suddenly got a quick intense sharp pain right where my lower back goes into the si joint/glute medius area and within seconds of feeling this quick, but very intense, pain, I felt my body twist out of position to where it was like I was looking to the left and twisted that way internally regardless of what I did. If I relaxed my body with feet straight, my upper torso would fall to the left, where as the front of my stomach would be at an angle to the left. I’ve been to 3 chiropractors, my current one very good, and the problem has gotten better, to where I don’t feel near the pressure in my right lower back/hips when I put my feet straight and try to stand forward, but I still feel twisted internally and the muscles of the thigh and glutes are constantly developing tight ropy trigger points that I work on with aggressive deep tissue work and even had my chiropractor dry needle a few of the spots. It feels like I either injured my glute medius or did something to a disc that is causing my body to stay twisted. If I stand at the bottom of stairs and get my feet squared up in the middle, and then look up the staircase, it’ll look like there’s more left field of view than right, and it feels like I’m closer to the right wall than left, even though my feet are squared up center. When I walk in a straight line, it’s like I’m twisted more to the left, I can never get truly squared up to what’s in front of me, and the dynamics of my upper back structure feels twisted. I get a dull ache on the right side when I sit too long, but I can run and walk endlessly with no pain, and it feels like twisting to the left is a bad idea. My glute has atrophied significantly. My right foot wants to pronate out all the time, although it’s gotten better with work on the trigger points that come up, it’s still wants to drop forward and pointed out from the other foot. X ray shows a slightly rotated pelvis with the eye holes at different sizes. Do these symptoms sound possible from a twisting disc injury? At this point I just want my body to be straight again so I can get back to real exercising and movement without feeling internally twisted and like I could easily injure myself from making a wrong move. Thanks for any answers or similar experiences.
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Donald Corenman, MD, DC

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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.

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Jumpball12

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