Spine Care

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Individualized, short and long-term care plans for each patient

Neck pain or back pain can be life altering. It can affect your sleep, your ability to work, and even make it hard for you to enjoy your regular activities. You don’t have to live with pain.  Proper diagnosis and treatment—often using a nonsurgical or minimally invasive surgical approach—may lessen your pain and improve the quality of your life.

Hackensack Meridian Health offers one of the most comprehensive spine programs in the region. Our highly trained spine specialists work together as a team to diagnose and treat neck and back conditions of all types. We treat a full range of problems, from the difficult-to-diagnose and complex, to those that have failed previous treatment. Our spine specialists will find the source of your pain and develop a plan of care for you, using the latest surgical and non-surgical treatments.

Getting you back to living life to the fullest

If you’re among the surprising number of men and women of all ages who suffer from chronic back pain due to an injury or medical condition, we can relieve your suffering and get you back to enjoying day-to-day activities the way you used to. At the Hackensack Meridian Health, we will build a treatment plan tailored to your unique condition by combining a range of complementary services. We focus on restoring normal, pain-free spinal function, using a conservative, non-surgical approach whenever possible. Our goal is to make sure that you receive the best possible treatment to lessen your pain, using methods that are both innovative and clinically proven so you can get back to your life.

Experienced in a full scope spinal surgery and revision

Along with an array of minimally invasive procedures including:

Mazor Robotics Renaissance®
A state-of-the-art guidance system for spine surgery, available at Hackensack Meridian Health. Mazor Robotics technology ensures 1.5mm accuracy for increased patient safety as compared to freehand spine surgery. Before entering the operating room, surgeons use Renaissance to pre-plan the optimal surgery in a CT-based 3-D simulation of the patient’s spine. During surgery, Renaissance guides the surgeon’s hand and tools to the precise pre-planned location.

Epidural steroid injections 
Steroids  delivered directly into the epidural space in the spine to reduce pain and inflammation.

Facet joint injections 
Numbing medicine and steroids put into the small joints of the spine, often to locate and relieve pain.

Trigger point injections 
An anesthetic injected into a knot of a muscle that will not relax, providing lasting relief.  Only a brief course of treatment and can be performed on the arms, legs, lower back and neck.

Joint injections 
Injections to relieve pain in a variety of joints including the knees, ankles, elbows and wrists.

Radio frequency ablation 
A treatment option for facet-related back pain that destroys the nerves that supply the facet joint and transmit pain signals.

Sacro-iliac joint injections 
A long-lasting steroid, such as cortisone, is injected into the joints in the lower back to reduce inflammation and swelling.

Discography 
X-ray dye is injected into the discs of the spine to evaluate disc morphology.

Percutaneous disc decompressions 
For minor herniated discs, a needle which emits radio waves is placed into a disc to decompress it from the inside and provide relief.

Intradiscal therapies 
For damaged discs that cause pain by pressing on a nerve, a special needle is placed into the disc through which intradiscal therapies can be performed.

Spinal cord stimulator implants 
An electronic device is inserted beside the spinal cord to treat chronic pain in the trunk and limbs. The device sends low voltage electrical impulses that prevent pain signals from reaching the brain.

Intrathecal pump implants 
This treatment is done in two phases. Once a trial is successfully performed,  a permanent pump is placed under the skin to deliver concentrated amounts of medication into the spinal cord through a catheter.

Kyphoplasty 
Restoration of bone height by repairing stress fractures of the vertebra. Our procedure fills the bone with cement from the inside.

Celiac plexus blocks 
Injection of a local anesthetic into the nerves that surround the aorta, the main artery of the abdomen, to reduce pain as part of a treatment for chronic abdominal pain.

Stellate ganglion blocks 
Blocking of the sympathetic nerves in the neck that go to the arms and face to reduce pain and swelling and improve mobility in the upper extremity.

Lumbar plexus blocks 
After hip replacement surgery, blocking of post-operative pain from the set of nerves that go to the front part of the hip and thigh.

What If Your Doctor Recommends Surgery?

If other treatment options are exhausted, your doctor may recommend surgery. If that is the case, you and your doctor will make that decision together. Your physician, often in close collaboration with colleagues from the neurosurgery and other departments, provides individualized surgical interventions using the most advanced technology available.