Treatments
Operations a visit may discuss.
Dr. Francois’s published clinical interests are minimally invasive spine surgery, cervical and lumbar disc disease, spinal deformity, and motion-preserving techniques. Whether any operation belongs in your plan is decided after an examination.
- Minimally invasive spine surgery
- Cervical and lumbar disc disease
- Spinal deformity
- Motion-preserving techniques
Spinal fusion
Spinal fusion joins two or more vertebrae so they heal as one unit. It is a way to stabilize a painful or unstable segment, not a treatment for every kind of back pain.
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion
ACDF removes a damaged disc from the front of the neck and fuses the vertebrae above and below it. It is one operation for selected cervical disc and stenosis problems.
Cervical fusion
Cervical fusion stabilizes vertebrae in the neck. From the front, that is often ACDF. From the back, screws and rods are used for a different set of problems.
Cervical disc surgery
Cervical disc surgery removes a disc in the neck that is pressing on a nerve or the spinal cord. Fusion and disc replacement are two different ways to finish the operation.
Lumbar microdiscectomy
A lumbar microdiscectomy removes the piece of disc that is pressing on a nerve in the low back, using a small incision and magnification.
Laminectomy
A laminectomy removes a portion of the vertebral arch, the lamina, to create more room for nerves or the spinal cord.
Lumbar fusion
Lumbar fusion permanently connects vertebrae in the low back. Posterior lumbar interbody fusion, or PLIF, is one technique inside this group, not a separate promise.
Minimally invasive spine surgery
Minimally invasive spine surgery is a set of approaches that use smaller corridors and imaging or tubular retractors. It is not one operation, and it is not automatically gentler in every way that matters.
Revision spine surgery
Revision surgery is a later operation to address a problem that remains, returns, or appears after an earlier spine procedure.
Fracture care and tumor surgery are decided in a hospital setting for a specific patient. This page does not advertise them as elective services, and it does not claim that a robot or a navigation system is used here.