Circle’s spinal surgery department focuses solely on the management of conditions affecting the neck (cervical spine), middle (thoracic) spine and lower (lumbar) spine.
This dedicated department focuses solely on the management of conditions affecting the neck (cervical spine), middle (thoracic) spine and lower (lumbar) spine.
The complex and sometimes significantly-disabling nature of spinal conditions requires a broad range of skills, and our unit integrates the expertise of leading orthopaedic surgeons with that of specialist neurosurgeons.
Our consultants are supported by our radiology department which regularly supports the service with the latest imaging techniques including:
We also provide a holistic service to our patients, with our spinal surgeons supported by pain specialists, specialist nurses and physiotherapists.
Where spinal surgery is not considered the best option for an individual, we are able to offer courses of rehabilitation, image-guided spinal joint injections and psychological therapies if required.
Spinal and neurosurgery covers a range of operative procedures that are used to re-align and stabilise specific spinal segments or joints, or to relieve pressure on neural tissue. Various surgical procedures exist to achieve these aims, including:
A less common reason to consider a more invasive spinal fusion is where scoliosis is present or is progressing. Scoliosis surgery necessitates operating over several spinal segments, and will often involve rods, hooks and screws being used to de-rotate and correct the alignment before fixating.
Neural tissue compression most often occurs as a result of a disc herniation or enlargement of the facet joints and soft tissue at one or several levels of the spine. Decompressive surgeries, including microdiscectomy and laminectomy procedures, make up a large proportion of spinal surgery work.
The majority of fusion and decompression operations are carried out in order to address problems with the lower lumbar or mid cervical spinal joints. These joints are the ones most commonly affected as they possess the most spinal segmental motion.
Sometimes spinal and neurosurgery is unfortunately needed to remove tumours and other space-occupying lesions when neural tissue is being dangerously compressed. These problems will each have their own challenges for the surgical team, dependent on the exact nature of the problem and its location.
Our experienced, consultant orthopaedic spinal and neurosurgeons will ensure they get a detailed history of your problem. This will enable them to request any appropriate diagnostic imaging and help them understand whether surgery may be necessary.
You will undergo an expert physical examination. This will include tests to analyse your posture and your spinal range of motion as well as a thorough neurological examination which may include:
State-of-the-art diagnostics available for you
Our experts will request any imaging they feel is necessary to confirm suspected diagnoses following your initial consultation.
The correct imaging techniques are also useful to help establish the extent of any structural problems and how things may progress if surgery is not conducted
To get the best possible understanding of the problem, our experts will normally request more than one form of imaging.
The right treatment for you, always
Due to the importance of spinal conditions and the highly specialist areas that spinal medicine comprises, decisions regarding surgical and non-surgical management will often be taken by a multidisciplinary team comprising:
You will always be given space and time to talk about how your symptoms have affected you. In addition, your individual goals - whether sporting or non-sporting - will be thoroughly discussed with you to determine the best possible management plan.
In cases where our multi-disciplinary teams and a patient feel that the best onward management plan may be a non-surgical route, we will always discuss other options available.
This may include a course of rehabilitation overseen by our specialist physiotherapists, spinal injections and denervation procedures administered by our pain management department or psychological talking therapies as necessary.
At Circle we provide all of these values through our experienced clinical and administration staff in a modern, clean hospital. This ensures the best possible outcomes are achieved, with the least amount of stress for our patients.
Our specialist spinal surgical units are recognised throughout the UK as centres of excellence. Our comprehensive service includes:
Expert support and guidance throughout your recovery and rehabilitation
Following your spinal surgery, we provide the very best in immediate post-operative care with our specialist nurses monitoring vital observations and attending to our patients needs to control any post-operative pain.
Our orthopaedic physiotherapists, working with carefully drawn up post-operative protocols planned by our spinal orthopaedic neurosurgical consultants, aid initial rehabilitation to allow rapid improvements in mobility.
In order to achieve the very best outcomes following our spinal and neurosurgical procedures, we have invested in the latest rehabilitation equipment to support our specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapists and patients. Our equipment includes:
Our patients are given the option of continuing intensive rehabilitation as an inpatient or undergoing regular, supervised physiotherapy sessions as an outpatient.
These Circle Health clinical values ensure our patients are able to return to their goals of activities of daily living and sports faster and stronger.
