Raymond Gardocki M.D.

26/05/2025

I am very proud to announce my inclusion as one of the top 2-3% Orthopedic Surgery Research All-Stars for 2025!
This honor is in recognition of the quantity and quality of the Orthopedic Surgery research authored and published last year.
The Healthcare Research All-Star lists are compiled by -garde Health and include only the top 5% of hospitals and physicians publishing leading-edge research in Orthopedic Surgery care. You can review the full list HERE.

15/05/2025

Can giant calcified thoracic discs be adequately addressed ustilizing an endoscopic approach?

I think they can. These are risky and challenging cases no matter how they are done, but the benefits of an ultra minimally invasive uniportal endoscopic approach for this pathology are obvious when compared to the morbidity profile of any other surgical technique. We have also shown tremendous cost savings when comapring the endoscopic approach to a traditional open approach requiring fusion.

https://lnkd.in/d5VZYKhH

Here is a 49yo physician with a giant calcified thoracic disc herniation with surprisingly mild myelopathy symptoms. She had a giant calcifed T7-8 herniated with severe cord impingement that was addressed through a right sided endoscopic approach under general anesthesia with neuromonitoring with excellent results. Patient stayed in the hospital overnight and rode home (out of state) the next morning. Incision picture was POD #1 before discharge. She went back to work within two weeks and didn’t need narcotics.

This is a true paradigm shift.

27/04/2025

The Spine as a Crane: A Biomechanical Analogy

The lumbar spine and multifidus muscle work together like a mechanical crane to ensure stability. The lumbar spine, like the crane’s tower, provides structural support for the torso. The multifidus muscles act as guy wires, tensioning the spine to increase stiffness and prevent buckling during heavy lifts, much like the cables that stabilize a crane under load.

But what happens if the guy wires fail? Weakened wires reduce the crane’s stability, which can lead to collapse under load. Lumbar spine surgery can damage the multifidus, akin to weakening or shortening a crane’s cables. A compromised multifidus muscle complex leads to spinal instability, causing pain, excessive motion, or injury during loading. If the wires don’t span the full tower—mimicking multifidus dysfunction—unsupported segments face stress, risking structural failure.

Post-surgery, rehabilitation is key to strengthen the multifidus and restore spinal stability, just as a crane needs repaired cables to function safely. This analogy highlights the importance of preserving these critical stabilizers and why I make every effort to spare the multifidus during minmally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery.




For those who want to learn more about the structure and function of the multifidus muscle, here is a paper co-authored by Dr. Choll Kim, Spine Surgeon:

https://pdfs.journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/2009/01000/architectural_analysis_and_intraoperative.22.pdf?token=method|ExpireAbsolute;source|Journals;ttl|1745767830342;payload|mY8D3u1TCCsNvP5E421JYK6N6XICDamxByyYpaNzk7FKjTaa1Yz22MivkHZqjGP4kdS2v0J76WGAnHACH69s21Csk0OpQi3YbjEMdSoz2UhVybFqQxA7lKwSUlA502zQZr96TQRwhVlocEp/sJ586aVbcBFlltKNKo+tbuMfL73hiPqJliudqs17cHeLcLbV/CqjlP3IO0jGHlHQtJWcICDdAyGJMnpi6RlbEJaRheGeh5z5uvqz3FLHgPKVXJzd3q8SQSgPZSBPpzHLmT+EuxESHqWcmdWSO5+px6umR1Kxd89kqvY42JV6he9UXSYL;hash|kfL4dirxJifJsf4IbdCZLQ==

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/tVGAjJkCj3c

11/04/2025

It was an honor to get the opportunity to speak about outpatient spine surgery and endoscopic treatment of giant calcified thoracic discs at ISASS 2025.

14/11/2024

“Mobey Disc”

14/11/2024

53yo male with left C6 and C7 radiculopathy with 8 months of 7/10 pain in the neck and arm unresponsive to physiotherapy, injections, medications, massage, and chiropractic treatment.

Diminished reflexes in the LUE and weakness in wrist extension, wrist flexion and triceps led to a two level posterior cervical foraminotomy/discectomy at C5-6 and C6-7. This surgery was done outpatient without the need for post operative narcotics or activity restrictions. The pre op and post op pain diagrams, the MRI and the single incision at 3 months is included in the pictures.

You can no longer have a discussion of motion, preservation technology in the cervical spine, that including endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy with or without discectomy.

Keep an eye out for our cost paper comparing endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy and microscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy coming out in Operative Neurosurgery soon.

21/09/2024

I am committed to educating others on the intricacies of uniportal endoscopic spine surgery, aiming to establish it as the gold standard of care.

Raymond J. Gardocki, MD (Nashville, TN), demonstrates how to adapt the trajectory for different herniation locations when performing a transforaminal endoscopic discectomy.

18/09/2024

What motivates you to go to work in the morning?

Messages like this one are the reason I jump out of bed every day:

A post-operative incision and a recent message from a patient who underwent a two-level posterior cervical foraminotomy. She recovered remarkably quickly from the cervical surgery and was so pleased with the outcome that she elected to evaluate her low back and leg pain with an MRI. Results like this fuel my commitment to advocating for endoscopic spine procedures.

06/08/2024

What does minimally invasive spine surgery really mean?
If the patient has a small incision, but is still restricted from activity for six weeks postoperatively, was that really minimally invasive in terms of the patient’s lifestyle?

I think Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery needs to achieve all the fundamental objectives of traditional spine surgery while minimizing the wound channel, preserving the multifidus muscle, decreasing the risk for segmental instability, and decreasing the complication rate. But it also needs to be minimally invasive in the time to recovery, wound care, and the need for postoperative narcotics.

Here’s a mid 30s male who had a previous right sided L4-5 MLD who now has left L4-5 lateral recess stenosis and facet cyst with claudicatory left L5 pain. He undergoes a left L4-5 endoscopic lateral recess decompression without post op activity restrictions decreasing his pain from 8/10 preop to 2/10 postop without the need for postoperative narcotics. He flew to New York postop day two and walked through times Square. He also golfed 18 holes one week postoperatively without significant pain.

Minimally, invasive spine surgery needs to be less invasive in all aspects of the patients recovery, not just in the length of the incision.

04/08/2024

I think there is consensus that some soft thoracic disc herniations can be addressed endoscopically, but I am frequently asked if calcified thoracic disc herniations with cord compression can also be addressed endoscopically.

My unequivocal answer is: yes.

Pre and immediate post op CT imaging of a 70 yo with thoracic myelopathy due to massive calcified herniation with some medical comorbidities. I typically do these cases in an ASC but due to comorbidities, this patient was done under general anesthesia with neuromonitoring at the hospital. This afforded me the opportunity to obtain an immediate post op CT from the PACU, just before he was discharged home the same day without the need for a narcotic prescription. Surgery took 129min skin to skin though an 8mm incision and the patient made it home before I did because I had a lumbar fusion case to follow.

I do not want to give the impression that this is an easy surgery. It is difficult no matter the approach taken.

This case is an example of leveraging maximum benefit of an endoscopic approach and is the best illustration of this paradigm shift in spine surgery.

09/07/2024

The greatest benefit with endoscopic spine surgery is the treatment of thoracic disc herniations which will lead to a paradigm shift in the management of this pathology.

A 34-year-old female with severe radicular pain from a left T10-11 herniation underwent an awake endoscopic thoracic discectomy as an outpatient. The result? Complete symptom relief and minimal post-op pain, only requiring two ibuprofen. She was back to lifting her children just three days post-op with 0/10 pain by the two week mark.

18/06/2024

Far lateral disc herniations present a surgical challenge for many providers, so much so that some even perform a primary fusion.

Endoscopic spine surgery offers the least invasive solution. Check out the pre-op MRI images showcasing a left far lateral herniation and compressed nerve root, followed by post-op MRI images taken 2 years later, revealing complete resolution of the herniation without any signs of the surgical intervention. This surgery was performed awake, outpatient, and did not require narcotics post operatively.

If you have been told you need a fusion surgery for a new disc herniation, please seek a second opinion.