What stands in the way of motion-preservation surgery
By Admin | December 15, 2025
Florida in Boca Raton, discussed his perspective during an upcoming episode of “Becker’s Spine and Orthopedic Podcast.”
Note: This is an edited excerpt.
Question: What spine technologies excite you the most?
Dr. Frank Vironis: What I’ve been very excited about is the motion-preservation technology that has become part of my practice on a daily basis. As you know, in spine surgery, we have essentially two types of procedures. We can decompress something or we can reconstruct the spine. Reconstructing the spine typically has been the domain of fusions where you glue together pieces of the spine. This works in the short term, but in the long term a lot of times people develop problems above or below their fusions because of the stresses that developed adjacent to a fused segment of the spine. Motion preservation, such as disc replacement as well as facet replacement, has been a thing that really can restore the motion segment and prevent this domino effect that we see with fusions. [It can] stop that particular cascade of more segments that need to be fused that lead to lack of mobility.
Q: Spinal fusion has been a “gold standard” in spine surgery for ages. How are you balancing the push for motion preservation with fusion?
FV: The issue is more or less with the indications. Many times our biggest problem with...(More)
For more info please read, What stands in the way of motion-preservation surgery, by Becker's Spine Review
