SSM Health Medical Minute: Complex spine and assisted surgery available in St. Charles

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – SSM Health Neurosciences has built a complex spine practice in St. Charles County to provide anything from basic conservative care all the way up to large adult deformity corrections.

Dr. David Neils, a neurosurgeon who sees patients at SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles and Lake St. Louis, wants residents in St. Charles County to know there is no need to travel outside the region to receive complex and comprehensive care.

“It’s a commitment by this hospital to bring cutting-edge care to the patients in St. Charles County, close to where they live and work, and allow us to speed up recoveries and make recovery easier for you,” he said. “It’s hard getting in the car and driving for 45 minutes to go home from surgery when you have the opportunity to just have it be, you know, 10 minutes down the road.”

Neils says new technologies are available to improve outcomes and reduce recovery times.

“Computerized surgery or the CAT scan, coupled with the optical tracking software, the stealth package, allows us to really minimize the amount of incisions,” he said. “We’re able to very precisely place screws within one millimeter of where they’re desired to be. It allows us to create better reconstructions of the spine for patients.”

Back and spine surgeries are customized to each patient’s needs. Most times, patients are referred by their primary care doctor after all other remedies have been exhausted.

“A lot of what our job is is trying to take what’s going on in the patient’s body, how it’s affecting their quality of life, matching it up with the imaging that they have, and trying to come up with a treatment plan that makes sense for them in terms of their goals and making their life better,” Neils said.

For more information about SSM Health Neurosciences, CLICK HERE .

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