ISASS 14, Miami Beach, April 30 - May 2 2014

[mmglobal]

Greetings from Miami,

ISASS is "The International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery". You'll find conference info at

ISASS - The International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery

This used to be "The Spine Arthroplasty Society". IMHO, the change was necessary because of reimbursement issues... as the insurance companies continue to refuse to pay for disc replacements, that focus on motion preservation made the focus of SAS too narrow, so they became a more generalized spine surgery society.

The morning sessions seem to have been dominated by XLIF.... particularly interesting to me as I may be looking at a thoracic XLIF in my future.

I don't have too much time to write, but I'll try to post the interesting data as I get it.

All the best,

Mark

[Maria]

Glad you're feeling well enough to be there and look forward to what you might have to share with regard to the conference. Hmm... that new name almost has a rap appeal to naming a part of the body that gets referred spinal pain...

[mmglobal]

Hi everyone... Just a quick update. ISASS14 was excellent. Unfortunately, the trip really set me back and I haven't been able to sit and type. (I also have a lot going on and being set back a week by the trip also makes it difficult to catch up.)

It was a great decision to not attempt to blog during the conference. I was able to attend most sessions and also spent a great deal of time in the exhibit hall getting more details.

A few things I'll be posting about...

• A huge change in diagnosing and treating SI joint dysfunction
• A new facet 'resurfacing implant
• Progress in spinal cord injury research
• Changes in the UK regarding epidural steroid injections
• An amazing case of a patient AT THE CONFERENCE who, by all rights should be a quadriplegic, but is 100%
• Many advancements in lateral surgeries
• An amazing lack of "anti polyethylene" anti-science
• A new type of MR scan that interrogates the chemical properties of discs. Early results show this technology to be a promising indicator of painful discs!

Stay tuned!

Mark

[mmglobal]

Placeholder... going to be a table of contents with links to individual threads for separate topics.

[Tim]

Hi Mark

I'm glad you were able to attend but sorry the trip has flared things up for you.
Looking forward to reading your report particularly the lateral access stuff..

Hope things settle down again soon.
Tim

[Maria]

All topics look interesting. Sorry your pain is flared up again and hope it's a short lived course. thanks for going there and gathering the info~