NEW YORK, April 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Dr. Arthur L. Jenkins III, MD a neurosurgeon who is an internationally recognized leader in minimally invasive spine surgery, has just published two papers that are derived from the largest published study of patients with Bertolotti’s Syndrome (a condition frequently misdiagnosed, and therefore often untreated). The two articles were recently published together in the World Neurosurgery Journal.
Some people are born with a congenital variation in the spine, known as a lumbosacral transitional vertebra (LSTV), which is where the transition between 5 similarly formed lumbar vertebra (LSTV) and the 5 fused sacral vertebra is “blurred” or partially differentiated at the transition between the two structures.
LSTVs are actually quite common, found in up to 1/3 of the population, and don’t always cause pain, even though some doctors mistakenly believe that they NEVER cause pain. Bertolotti’s Syndrome is when the congenital anomaly is the source of one or more kind of pain: back, hip, groin, or leg pain. These patients sometimes have normal MRI findings, or sometimes an asymptomatic finding may be mistaken for the cause of their pain, which then sends the treating clinicians down the wrong pathway. Many doctors and spine practitioners may not be familiar with Bertolotti’s syndrome, and therefore not recognize it.
Dr. Jenkins explains: “seeing is believing, but believing is necessary for seeing. If you aren’t aware of a condition or a syndrome, you won’t see it even if it is right in front of you. Too many of my patients have been told ‘that can’t cause your pain’ for years, and when we get that LSTV injected and they have a brief but dramatic respite from their pain, it’s often an epiphany for them.”
Dr. Jenkins understands how differences in anatomy change the treatment strategy. He then developed minimally invasive surgical techniques for when less invasive treatments fail. Most surgeries are done on an outpatient basis. This study provides the evidence for his treatment strategy, providing the least invasive but most effective treatment for each patient.
Jenkins NeuroSpine is a concierge-style private practice with offices in Manhattan, NY and Greenwich, CT that specializes in treatment of all types of common and rare spinal conditions, from Chiari malformations to coccygectomies, disk herniations of all types to spinal fluid leaks and repairs, and everything in between, using endoscopic, microscopic, exoscopic, stereotactic navigation, and all other advanced technologies. As one of the very few private practices in the US with its own research department, Dr. Arthur Jenkins is at the forefront of developing advances in spine related diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Jenkins’ passion for finding the least invasive but most effective treatments for all his patients motivates this goal for his patients:
We Turn Patients Back Into People!™.
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SOURCE Jenkins Neurospine