Your spine endures a lot. It supports the weight of your head, allowing you to stand up straight. It allows you to bend forward, backward, and flex from side-to-side. And it protects the delicate spinal cord and nerve roots that run through the spinal canal. With so much going on,...
The sciatic nerve extends from the lumbar (lower back) spine and splits off into two branches, each of which travels through your buttocks and down the outside of your legs and into your feet. It’s the longest nerve in your body, servicing the back of your thighs and your lower...
The spine is an amazing structure — strong enough to support your head upright, but flexible enough to let you bend, flex, and twist. Unfortunately, though, it’s not indestructible. Whether due to injury, disease, or just getting older, components may become damaged and stop functioning properly, leaving you with back...
Diabetes is a disease characterized by high glucose (sugar) levels in the blood. It occurs either when the pancreas’ beta cells fail to make the hormone insulin, responsible for moving sugar into cells to be converted to energy (type 1), or when the cells themselves become resistant to insulin’s effects...
Pinched nerves also go by the names impinged or compressed nerves. They’re very common, affecting about 85 out of 100,000 US adults every year. The “pinch” occurs when something applies too much pressure on a nerve or spinal nerve root, leading to pain, weakness, tingling, and numbness along that nerve. The most...
The spine is an amazing example of biological architecture — strong enough to keep your back straight and support your head upright but flexible enough to let you bend, flex, and twist. It’s not indestructible, though. Due to injury, disease, and even getting older, structures may become damaged and cease...
Sciatica is a form of radiculopathy, pain that travels from a “pinched” nerve root in the spinal canal down the length of the nerve into an extremity, in this case the leg. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body, extending from the lumbar (lower back) spine and...
At Vertrae®, with offices in Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, board-certified neurosurgeon and neurological spine surgeon Dr. Kamal Woods and his team treat a number of spine-related conditions using state-of-the-art technologies, including robotic surgery systems. These systems allow them to map out a surgical plan in great detail, as well as improve the accuracy...
It used to be that all surgeries were done with an “open” technique that involved long incisions, extended hospital stays and recovery times, and increased risks of blood loss and infection. In the 1980s, minimally invasive surgery emerged as a safe and effective technique for many procedures. One of the...
Surgery is usually the treatment option of last resort. Doctors start with conservative methods to treat illness and injury, but when they fail to produce results, surgery may become a viable choice. At Vertrae®, board-certified neurosurgeon and neurological spine surgeon Dr. Kamal Woods and his staff specialize in using state-of-the-art surgical technologies,...
Pinched nerves, also called impinged or compressed nerves, are very common, affecting some 85 out of 100,000 US adults every year. They happen when something applies too much pressure on a nerve or nerve root, including cartilage, muscles, tendons, bone spurs, or the material oozing out from a herniated disc. That added...
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, of which there are over 100 different types. This wear-and-tear condition occurs when joint bones’ protective cartilage wears away, leaving the bones to grate against one another, causing inflammation, pain, and swelling. OA can affect any joint, including the facet joints of...
Bone spurs, medically called osteophytes, are smooth, bony lumps that often develop near joints, places where two or more bones come together. They grow over a long period of time and may not produce symptoms until they’re large enough to impinge on nearby nerves. Bone spurs most commonly form in...
The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It starts in the lumbar (lower back) spine, and splits off into two branches, each of which travels through your buttocks and to the outside of the legs and feet. If the nerve root at L4-L5 and/or L5-S1 should become...
Your spine is made up of 24 interlocking bony vertebrae, each separated by an intervertebral disc that both cushions the spine and allows you to bend. The combination forms a hollow tube, which runs the spinal cord and other associated nerves that exit the canal and extend to various parts...
“Degenerative disc disease” is something of a misnomer — DDD isn’t a disease, but rather a spinal condition where damage to an intervertebral disc leads to pain, including pain from a “pinched” or impinged-upon nerve. Pinching of the nerve may cause pain that spreads into an extremity. Disc degeneration can...
Back pain is all too common, affecting 8 out of 10 people at least once during their lives. Your spine is made up of 24 bony vertebrae, each with soft intervertebral discs that absorb shock and help allow you to bend, turn, and flex. The spine extends from the base...
Neck and back pain are common complaints, with 60-80% of adults experiencing back pain at some point in their lives, and 20-70% experiencing neck pain. Both can interfere with your daily activities and become disabling if not treated. According to board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Kamal R. Woods at Vertrae®, which has...
Your sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body, starting in the lumbar spine (lower back) and traveling through your buttocks and down the outside of each leg. When it becomes “pinched,” say from an injury, a herniated disc, or spinal stenosis, you feel pain, numbness, and/or tingling radiating...
Spondylosis is also called spinal osteoarthritis. It refers to wear-and-tear degeneration (osteoarthritis) in the joints of the spine, and it becomes more common as you age. Greater than 80% of people older than 40 show some signs of the condition on X-rays, and, according to the Arthritis Foundation, it may...
First there was open surgery, but it required large incisions, carried some serious risks, and made for a long recovery. Then there came minimally invasive surgery, which could perform the same procedures but required smaller incisions; it had fewer risks, especially of bleeding and infection; and had a shortened recovery...
Your spine is an amazing structure. It provides enough stiffness to let you walk erect but enough flexibility that you can bend, twist, and pivot. Much of that flexibility comes about because of the discs that fit between the bones, providing cushioning with movement and preventing bone-on-bone grating. If something...
Your sciatic nerve extends from your lower back through your buttocks and to each of your legs and feet, and is the longest nerve in your body. If it should become pinched, compressed, or irritated, you can experience pain, numbness, and tingling anywhere along its length, with the pain ranging...
Pinched nerves cause pain in your neck (or back), but that’s not all. Pinched nerves affect the health and function of your nerves. Left untreated, a pinched nerve can contribute to permanent nerve damage. The good news is pinched nerves can be treated, and board-certified neurosurgeon Kamal Woods, MD, MBA,...
After shopping around, we decided to build this website ourselves. We wanted the content to be original and organic. There is a tremendous amount of passion behind Vertrae (pronounced "Ver-Tray"). The word itself is a combination of 2 words: virtual and vertebrae (spine). Our goal is to provide spine care...