Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr David Cumming - Part 1

In this episode of ‘Interview the Expert’ we speak with Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr David Cumming. David specialises in back and spine for both the NHS and The Schoen Clinic London. David is also President of the British Association of Spine Surgeons and serves as the Clinical Chair of Specialist Spinal Services for NHS England.

Interview ‘Topics’ below:

0:18 - Why spine surgery as a specialty?
1:30 - Do surgeons tend to specialise in specific regions of the spine (e.g. cervical only)?
2:32 - Should the patient see a neuro or orthopaedic surgeon?
3:45 - What is ‘The British Association of Spine Surgeons’ (BASS) and how do they aim to help the patient? - please see https://spinesurgeons.ac.uk/
5:54 - How long have you been a consultant?
7:00 - How many patients do you see each year and what is the conversion rate?
9:12 - Are surgery decisions based primarily on scans? Scans do not always show what you need to see.
12:43 - The importance of scans and interpretation.
13:52 - New procedures off the mainstream. Procedures that have NOT gone through the research process yet.
17:25 - Lumbar disc replacements as opposed to fusion surgery and the long term outcomes.
20:03 - Can lumbar disc replacements fuse themselves?
20:54 - The preservation of motion at a segment.
23:20 - Ask your surgeon for outcome statistics.
24:25 - What are your most common procedures?
25:18 - What are infections of the spine?