Charles A. Hogan, MDSpine Surgeon

• Kindness
• Compassion
• Excellence
• Patient-Centered-Approach

Sometimes surgery, even with the risks, is the kind and compassionate answer. Many times, surgery is the furthest from what a patient truly needs. We pride ourselves on helping patients work through this process so that you can make the very best decision when answering this question.

We believe strongly in the sub-specialist model of care for complex problems. Fellowship training is a way for a surgeon to further refine understanding in a complex area. Fellowship training means that a surgeon chose to spend extra time after the residency training, gaining more specialty specific knowledge. This can be thought of as polishing school for honing skills, refining understanding, and gaining exposure to cutting edge techniques under direction of leaders in the field.

We have largely limited our practice to non-surgical and surgical management of neck and back problems. Much of the neck and arm pain that I see in the clinic overlaps with orthopaedic problems of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. Much of the back and leg pain that I see in the clinic overlaps with orthopaedic problems of the SI joints, Hip, Knee, Ankle and Foot. As an orthopaedic surgeon I am well versed in diagnosing and operating on those conditions, but I enjoy specializing in and focusing on neck and back issues.

Luckily, most patients I see in the clinic are not indicated for surgery and my experience has been consistent with the quoted literature, in that many patients with neck pain radiating down their arm, or back pain radiating down their leg will improve once we sit down and 1. Make the right diagnosis and then 2. Set in motion the right non-surgical treatment. We pride ourselves on educating our patients, engaging our patients in the decision-making process, and then answering questions so that you may better understand this unnerving/debilitating process that is causing your pain. 

We have found that many patients who ultimately make it in to see us have an element of this negative feedback loop: pain leading to fear leading to anxiety leading to depression that then worsens their pain. Chronic pain can lead to altered sleep as well as putting stress on your daily interaction with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. The disability of this process affects patients lives in various ways. We acknowledge this and help facilitate the appropriate care for this as well.

In my opinion (based on the experience of those who trained me, my understanding of the published spine literature, and my own personal experience) there are actually only a handful of scenarios where spine surgery is the appropriate treatment. One such scenario would be tumors or infections or fractures/dislocations that truly cause excess spinal motion at the spinal joints and discs (instability) or pressure on the spinal cord or nerves (stenosis) which then causes neurologic dysfunction or disabling pain. Another more common reason why a patient in my practice may ultimately decide to have surgery is spinal narrowing from arthritis/disc problems/bone spurs/slipped vertebrae that cause pressure (stenosis) on the spinal cord or spinal nerves which then causes neurologic dysfunction or disabling pain. Spinal deformity including scoliosis (curved back), kyphosis (hunched back), fixed sagittal imbalance (flat back) can also be disabling and if so may benefit from surgery.

Disclaimer: Everything provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment by a healthcare professional. We provide this mainly for prospective patients to see if our practice philosophy and goals align with a given patients' desires and expectations before scheduling a consultation.

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  North American Spine Society
• 
  American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
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  Spine Intervention Society
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  International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery
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  Orthopedic Society of Oklahoma
• 
  AO Spine North America

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  Alpha Omega Alpha
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  Gold Foundation
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  Phi Beta Kappa
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  Alpha Lambda Delta
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  Phi Eta Sigma
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  Golden Key