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BackTable / MSK / Podcast / Episode #18
Awake Spine Surgery
with Dr. Alok Sharan
In this episode, Dr. Jacob Fleming interviews Dr. Alok Sharan about low back awake spinal surgery. This innovative approach offers patients a more pleasant surgical experience compared to traditional surgery under general anesthesia. Not only does it provide better patient outcomes, but it also reduces the need for opioid pain medication and allows for improved mobility after the procedure.
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BackTable, LLC (Producer). (2023, July 5). Ep. 18 – Awake Spine Surgery [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.backtable.com
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Podcast Contributors
Dr. Alok Sharan
Dr. Alok Sharan is the president of Spine and Performance Institute in Edison, New Jersey.
Dr. Jacob Fleming
Dr. Jacob Fleming is a diagnostic radiology resident and future MSK interventional radiologist in Dallas, Texas.
Synopsis
Dr. Sharan began his career in academic medicine at Montefiore, where he gained valuable experience in caring for individuals with severe back problems requiring spine surgery. During his time at Montefiore, Dr. Sharan recognized the changing landscape of healthcare and decided to pursue a healthcare MBA. This unique combination of medical expertise and business knowledge led him to transition to private practice.
Dr. Sharan explains that awake spinal surgery offers several benefits for patients undergoing spine procedures. It enables patients to mobilize and recover from surgery more quickly, leading to faster overall recovery times and decreased risk of delirium. Additionally, patients have the opportunity to return home on the same day as the surgery, promoting a more convenient and comfortable experience. Awake spinal surgery also helps reduce the reliance on narcotics for pain management, with patients typically only needing narcotics for around four days compared to the usual four to six weeks with surgeries performed under general anesthesia. Due to the improvement in patient outcomes and the tremendous cost-efficiency of the procedure, awake spinal surgery is an appealing option for individuals requiring spinal fusions and other procedures.
Dr. Sharan's entrepreneurial drive has led him to create a comprehensive preoperative education program. His patients are provided with virtual reality headsets to simulate and experience the day of surgery and the actual surgical procedure. The aim is to alleviate any fears or anxieties the patients may have prior to undergoing surgery by immersing them in a realistic virtual environment. This approach helps to prepare patients mentally and emotionally, ensuring a smoother and more comfortable surgical experience. Dr. Sharan is now sharing his techniques with surgeons around the world and anticipates this technique being implemented in many fields in the future.
Resources
Awake Spinal Fusion:
https://awakespinalfusion.com
Doc Social:
https://doc.social
Dr. Sharan’s LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alok-sharan-6a612610/
Transcript Preview
[Dr. Alok Sharan]
Right. At a very high level, awake spine surgery is using local and regional anesthesia to perform low back surgery, not neck surgery, but low back surgery. In my mind, what awake spine surgery represents is just the notion of not using general anesthesia and being able to really just precisely numb up the area that needs surgery, that area in particular. Then along with it, the whole notion of awake spine surgery is that by avoiding general anesthesia, by using just local and regional anesthesia, we're able to mobilize patients quicker and get them out of pain quicker so that their recovery is fast. We'll get into the details later, but at this point now, a spinal fusion surgery, which normally results in patients staying in the hospital for about two, three days, and they're on narcotics for four to six weeks. At this point now, when we do an awake spinal fusion, it takes us about an hour, hour and a half to do, and patients stay in the hospital for four hours, they go home the same day, and they're on narcotics for only about four days.
Disclaimer: The Materials available on BackTable.com are for informational and educational purposes only and are not a substitute for the professional judgment of a healthcare professional in diagnosing and treating patients. The opinions expressed by participants of the BackTable Podcast belong solely to the participants, and do not necessarily reflect the views of BackTable.
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