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others. These are physicians who want to improve their results and
do best by their patient,” said Dr. Rouben.
There are several aspects available to the training process including
videos, hands-on work with cadavers and watching physicians such
as Dr. Rouben perform the operation in person.
More than 100 surgeons have visited Dr. Rouben’s office at 9300
Stonestreet Road to learn the procedure straight from the source.
The first to visit were two spine surgeons from Nova Scotia, Canada, but spine surgeons continued to arrive in a steady stream soon
thereafter. One summer saw Dr. Scott and his partner training two
neurosurgeons from Cincinnati each week for 12 consecutive weeks.
Dr. Rouben was invited to teach in China in 2005, where he visited
several cities including Beijing and Shanghai and gave the keynote
address to the Chinese Spinal Society. “It was a great honor. The
Chinese culture is very interesting. They don’t call you up or send
you a thank you note after you teach them. They consider the fact
that they replicated your technique and expanded upon it as the
expression of their thanks. That’s how they honor you,” he said.
The MAST-TLIF procedure is spreading farther every year. In
addition to China, Dr. Rouben has visited Canada and Israel and
hundreds of physicians in America. Just weeks from now, he’s scheduled to train physicians in Tampa Bay, Florida and San Diego,
California. And, our knowledge of the spine is ever evolving.
Spine specialists have now become able to predict, pre-operatively, what the correct posture should be at each disc level, allowing
disc re-construction to be planned before surgery as to the correct
height and angle. “Everybody probably thought we were doing
this already, but it’s something that’s new and that we’re teaching
younger surgeons.”
Dr. Rouben also envisions a future for spinal surgery where
implants would dissolve away over a two year period, allowing the
body to flush away the unneeded screws and rods once they’ve
done their job.
“I think there are certain people in the world who are always
looking for a better way to accomplish the same treatment goal with
less trauma to the patient,” he said. “That should always be our goal.
To do no harm and improve on what we do.”
Note: Aaron Burch is the communications specialist for the Greater
Louisville Medical Society.
FEBRUARY 2015
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