It’s an unfortunate truth that even with meticulously executed spine surgeries, complications can sometimes happen. Some patients won’t heal well, others don’t receive the outcomes they hope for.

“Some patients whose spine surgeries aren’t considered ‘successful’ are often told nothing more can be done to relieve their pain and they just need to learn to live with it, but that isn’t necessarily always accurate,” said Dr. Scheid.  “Reoperative spine surgery may be an option for some of these patients.”

While it is true that reoperative spine surgeries are more technically demanding than the traditional kind, Dr. Scheid is one of the very few surgeons who are skilled enough to specialize in it.

To this end, Dr. Scheid has created a protocol for reoperative procedures that includes:

• Careful diagnosing of the patient’s individual issues
• Determining why surgery did not provide the desired outcome
• When indicated, performing restorative surgery to undo or redo a portion of the initial operation to provide pain relief

Some examples of the reoperative spine surgeries Dr. Scheid performs include minimally invasive nerve decompression, exploration of spinal fusions, and surgery for adjacent level diseases.