The Spine Pod

The Spine Pod Conversations about Motion Surgery
New episodes every other Wednesday

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06/01/2026

Getting spine surgery doesn’t always have to come with an exhaustive list of restrictions. If you’ve been told that spine surgery is the end of the road and you’ll have to give up things you once loved, it might be time to ask if a motion preserving alternative is an option to get you back to an active and functional lifestyle.

Dr. Jason Cuellar talks through what cervical disc replacement (CDA) can offer to patients. The procedure is designed to restore motion, and his post-recovery restrictions reflect that. His patients have gone back to MMA fighting. Extreme skiing. There's even Air Force research showing cervical disc replacement is safe through the extreme G-force of a pilot ejection.

Compare this with what you’d be likely getting otherwise, an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), which comes with a different recovery protocol and restrictions list. The contrast between CDA and cervical fusion is real, and it's part of why he favors this approach. Recovery tends to be easier on cervical disc replacement patients, and once they're through it, he's not sitting across from them running through a list of what they can't do anymore.

If getting your life back, not a modified version of it, is what you're hoping for on the other side of surgery, that's worth factoring motion preservation into the conversation with your surgeon.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/30/2026

Getting a diagnosis that has the word "disease" can be scary. It sounds permanent. It sounds serious. And if you found degenerative disc disease (DDD) on an MRI report before a doctor has a chance to explain it to you, it can cause some stress and panic.

Dr. Ahilan Sivaganesan explains what's actually happening in the disc as it ages and why finding it on an MRI isn't automatically a reason to worry before you've had a real conversation with your doctor.

Finding it on an MRI doesn't automatically mean surgery is the next conversation you need to have. That said, for some people the symptoms and the imaging do match up, and degenerative disc disease can be really painful and debilitating.

If chronic leg and/or back pain has taken over your life and you’re at a point where conservative care is no longer providing relief, it may be time to ask your surgeon if motion-preserving surgery could be an option for you.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/28/2026

If you've ever sat in a consult, been told you need a spinal fusion and felt your stomach drop a little, Dr. Kamal Woods says you're not alone. That reaction from patients is what drove him to completely rethink how he treats the spine.

As patients pushed back on fusion conversations, he leaned further into motion preservation as a practice philosophy. Patients told him what they wanted, and he built his practice around it.

If you’ve been dealing with chronic leg and/or back pain, spinal fusion is no longer your only option. Finding a surgeon who specializes in motion preservation is becoming more accessible than it was even a few years ago. If that's the kind of care you're looking for, it's out there, and more and more surgeons are offering it.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/27/2026

If you've been told to hold off on spine surgery until you can barely function, Dr. Todd Lanman explains why that thinking can be outdated, and sometimes detrimental. You shouldn’t have to white-knuckle through years of pain and sacrifice your quality of life because of old schools of thought on your treatment options.

It made more sense when fusion was the only option. But today there are motion preserving surgeries that can help keep you mobile and active. The key thing to know is seeking care earlier can make a real difference when looking for alternatives to spinal fusion.

If you’ve been living with years of leg and/or back pain because someone told you fusion was your only option, a surgeon who specializes in motion preservation may provide treatment options you haven’t been offered before.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/26/2026

Most people don't think about their spine until it forces them to. Implementing a few lifestyle habits can help improve spine health and hopefully keep back pain at bay.

Dr. Jason Cuellar walks us through what he tells his patients when they want keep their back healthy. Nothing on this list requires a prescription or a specialist visit. These are daily habits that build on each other over time, and most of them are good for your overall health, not just your spine.

The one that surprises people most: your intervertebral discs rehydrate while you sleep. Consistently cutting sleep short means your spine isn't recovering overnight the way it needs to.

Whether you’ve had a back pain flare before or you’re trying to avoid back and/or leg pain in the future, this list provides helpful tips on how to keep your body functional and pain free as long as possible.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/23/2026

If you’ve experienced a herniated disc, you know how debilitating and all-consuming it can be to your life. One day you’re working out at the gym, doing household activities, or picking up your kids, and out of nowhere a shooting pain down your back and through your legs puts you on the ground.

It’s easy for this immediate pain to cause panic and can be hard to know what to do next.
Do you need to rush into surgery? Or could this heal with time?

Dr. Siva walks us through when a disc herniation actually needs urgent attention and when your body may handle it on its own.

If you're not experiencing muscle weakness or bowel/bladder changes, it comes down to how much pain you can tolerate and how much it’s impacting your daily life. Although the leg and/or back pain may be extreme, many of herniations do improve without surgery, and some reabsorb entirely with time.

Conservative care treatments such as physical therapy, medications, and/or injections help many people get back on their feet when tolerable. If conservative care fails, it might be time to make an appointment with your provider to discuss possible surgical treatment options.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/21/2026

If your chronic back and/or leg pain has started shaping how you work, how you spend time with your family, and whether you say yes to things you used to enjoy, it might be time to talk with a spine surgeon about treatment options. Your life shouldn’t be put on hold because of your back pain.

There's a specific kind of stuck that patients live in before they decide. You're managing. Barely. You're still going to work but you're not really there. You've stopped doing the things that used to make your week feel like yours. And the whole time you're measuring yourself against some invisible bar. Am I bad enough yet? Is this enough to justify surgery? The answer to that isn't always on a scan.

Dr. Woods breaks it into two lanes. If there's neurological decline happening (loss of grip, loss of balance, bowel and bladder issues), the answer is more clear-cut. But if it's pain, it comes down to what you’re sacrificing in your day-to-day life.

When you’re no longer living the life you love, or you feel like you are giving up too much, it may be time to talk with a spine surgeon to see what options are available to help get you back on your feet.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/20/2026

If your hip doctor told you today that you needed a hip fusion, you'd run out of the office. We can't even imagine that anymore. But when it's the spine, most patients hear "fusion" and assume that's their only option.

Joint replacement is the standard of care for every other major joint in the body. Hips, knees, ankles, shoulders. The spine is the last one we still routinely fuse. Part of that is complexity. But there have been major advancements in motion preservation that are giving patients real options beyond fusion. And just like Sir John Charnley faced when he invented the total hip replacement, criticism is part of how these things progress. He often heard statements from his peers like, “this is just a fad” or “this isn’t going to last.” It's part of the process. It makes the research sharper and the outcomes better. Fast forward 60 years and total hip replacement is one of the most successful orthopedic procedures that exist.

What does that mean if you're a spine patient? That we're not where the other major joints are yet, but we're getting there. The options exist, they're well researched, and they continue to advance. Finding a surgeon who specializes in motion preservation gives you the best opportunity to hear all your options beyond just a spinal fusion.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/19/2026

If you've been looking for a surgeon who offers motion preserving spine surgery and you keep hearing "fusion" instead, you're not crazy for wanting to understand all your options. Dr. Jason Cuéllar sat down with us to talk about the challenge many patients experience when seeking spine care.

Sometimes patients who want alternatives to spinal fusion end up seeing three, four, five surgeons trying to find someone who will even have the conversation. That's a lot of appointments when you're already in pain. You shouldn't have to fight through multiple consults just to hear all your options.

Whether you’re looking for disc replacement or other motion-sparing alternatives, it’s important to find a surgeon who performs them regularly. Seeking out the right care for your condition can be hard, don’t be scared to ask your surgeon what options are available for your condition.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

05/16/2026

Is back and leg pain causing you to constantly rethink your simplest daily activities? Asking yourself things like:

How far can I get before the leg pain starts?
Where's the next place to sit?
Can I make it back to the car?

This clip is for you.

There's a real, structural reason for this, it’s called spinal stenosis. Dr. Siva walks through what’s actually going on in your body that’s causing your back and leg pain.

If this chronic pain and/or weakness has started shaping how you spend your day, it’s worth a workup with a spine surgeon to see if spinal stenosis is the cause.

This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

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