Spine Care

The UCSF Spine Center is one of the largest centers of its kind in the country, treating 10,000 patients a year. The center brings together world-renowned specialists in neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, neurology, physiatry and other specialties to design the most effective treatment for your condition. The team includes experts in cancer, pain management, physical therapy, radiation oncology and rheumatology.

We treat the full spectrum of spinal disorders from complex and difficult-to-diagnose conditions to those that have failed previous treatment. We care for people of all ages — including children — through the full course of treatment and recovery.

Conditions

We specialize in diagnosing and treating the following conditions:

Degenerative Conditions

• Degenerative disc disease
• Disc herniation, including cervical, lumbar and thoracic
• Stenosis, including cervical and lumbar

Deformities

• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Flatback syndrome
• Kyphosis, including conditions related to osteoporosis
• Scoliosis, adolescent and adult

Spinal Tumors

Trauma and Fractures

Services

Our services include:

• Minimally invasive cervical and lumbar techniques
• Motion-sparing surgery, such as artificial disc replacement
• Complex revision spine surgery
• Innovative surgical techniques for spinal tumors
• Computerized 3-dimensional surgery
• Non-invasive radiosurgery with the Cyberknife
• New treatments and opportunities for patients to participate in clinical trials to test these new therapies

We also offer a Spine Tumor Board, which every month reviews challenging spinal tumor cases and a Rapid Case Review service for urgent conditions that can't wait for the monthly tumor board.

Our patients have access to the most up-to-date imaging technologies to diagnose spinal disorders. They also have access to innovative treatments, such as the lateral paramedian transpedicular technique, a procedure developed by an expert at UCSF and not widely available elsewhere.

Research

In addition to caring for patients, our experts are at the forefront of basic scientific research to better understand spinal conditions as well as research to develop and test new technologies and treatments.

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated October 6, 2008