Webinar Episode 1. Jan 2023

Welcome to the first live webinar with our Founder Joel Proskewitz.

The questions addressed and their respective time stamps were as follows:

0:00 - An introduction to the webinar format and why. Ultimately, people want to understand what is going on with their spine. Joel mentions ‘What does the patient with back pain want? A comparison of patient preferences and physician assumptions (Smuck et al - The Spine Journal, Volume 22, Issue 2, February 2022, Pages 207-213)

7:00 - A T7 to T4 spinal fusion following a T6 burst fracture. What are the limitations and restrictions moving forward? Joel mentions adjacent segment disease, questions whether a good curvature was established and whether the initial issue was successfully stabilised.

14:55 - A loss of spinal curvature (lordosis) and a lack of ability to tolerate compressive force. Joel discusses the L4 and L5 60% contribution to lordosis, endplate damage, inflammation and loss of disc height.

24:00 - Removing the ligamentum flavum during a discectomy. Joel discusses the removal techniques, scar tissue implications and the skillset of the performing surgeon.

37:05 - An S1/L5 disc extrusion with associated symptoms and how long should you persist with conservative intervention. Joel raises the decision differences based on the presence of pain and/or neural deficit.

40:25 - Stenosis and Scoliosis. Joel explains stenosis types and the symptoms. He also defines the lateral deformity of Scoliosis. Movement techniques and anti-inflammatory injections are discussed as well as the ‘Schroth Method’ specifically for Scoliosis patients.

51:10 - Returning to sport with spinal degeneration. Joel stresses patients will need to follow a strict auditing process. This will lead to very small amounts of activity to gradually expose the body to movements for adaption to take place.