‘Humility’ key to bridging the gap between orthopedic, neurosurgical spine
By Admin | March 16, 2026
At Saint Louis University-SSM Health, spinal neurosurgeon Mauricio Avila, MD, has spent his time building bridges between orthopedic spine and neurosurgeons.
Interdisciplinary collaboration has become more and more of a priority in the spine world, especially with overlapping care needs and technologies.
Dr. Avila, director of the neurosurgery spine program, discussed how he deepened collaborations across spine teams, along with tips for adopting endoscopic spine on Becker’s “Spine and Orthopedic Podcast.”
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full conversation here.
Question: How do you want to grow SSM’s neurosurgery spine program over the next 12 to 24 months?
Dr. Mauricio Avila: We’ve been able to achieve something that has always been in my mind: creating a bridge between neurosurgery and orthopedic spine. As we all evolve, we’ve now come to understand that the spine specialty is a shared world, and besides very few procedures, we basically can do the same thing.
Personally, I’m growing the endoscopic spine program, which has been very interesting for me because I was not exposed to that during my residency or fellowship. But because I’m a big believer in minimally invasive surgery, it was very easy for me to understand the value of endoscopic spine.
Q: I want to home in on what you’re saying about bridging between orthopedic spine and neurosurgery spine. What does that look like in practice? What kinds of actions and strategies are you thinking about?
MA: What I did here is my orthopedic colleagues had basically some spine conference, so I asked...(More)
For more info please read, ‘Humility’ key to bridging the gap between orthopedic, neurosurgical spine, by Becker's Spine Review
