Louisville Medicine Volume 62, Issue 9 | Page 11

(continued from page 7) 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 9