https://www.alpinespineorthopedics.com/

Alpine Spine & Orthopedics, 920 E 800 N Suite 202, Orem, UT (2025)

$Yet another successful bilateral pars fracture repair with the patient now living his best life and dunking! (with permi...$

12/18/2025

Yet another successful bilateral pars fracture repair with the patient now living his best life and dunking! (with permission to post his case and photo). We have seen numerous athletes who thought their spine fractures ended their careers, yet who then had enough healing and repair from our procedures to fully return to football, soccer, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, and many more sports. It is never a guarantee of course, but far better to try these less invasive approaches before jumping to much higher-risk spinal hardware surgeries with irreversible long-term consequences and high failure rates. These outcomes that save people from surgery are worth all the late nights and long years of research to push the future of minimally-invasive interventions into more successful reparative approaches.

This patient's pain fully resolved by 18 weeks at which time he began playing again with his basketball team, and now 14 months out he is doing amazing. He and his family kindly sent us the following, which means the world to us:

"Dear Dr. McMurtrey, I wanted to take a moment to thank you—not just for what you did medically, but for how you did it. When we first came to you, we were carrying a lot of uncertainty. As a parent, it’s hard to put into words what it feels like to watch your child hurt and not know which path is the right one. From the start, you were thoughtful, honest, and measured. You never promised miracles. You explained possibilities, risks, and realities with clarity and respect, and that mattered more than you probably realize. 14 months later, my son is doing things we once weren’t sure would be possible again. He’s moving freely, training intelligently, and trusting his body... we don’t take any of this for granted. Whether it was timing, preparation, persistence, your expertise—or maybe a little help from God—we are deeply grateful for the role you played in giving him a chance. Thank you for practicing medicine with integrity, humility, and care. Thank you for treating us like people, not cases, and for helping us navigate one of the harder chapters of our lives with steadiness and compassion."

12/14/2025

There are a shocking number of cases of missed atlantoaxial & craniocervical instabilities with alar & transverse ligament injuries in kids with falls and traumas, especially suspicious when clavicle fractures are present, suggesting high-impact trauma to the spine which some doctors ignore thinking the neck is twisted due to muscle spasms. Several of these cases were found to have atlantoaxial rotary subluxation with brachial plexus or spinal cord injuries. If a child has suffered a trauma severe enough to break the clavicle, there should be an extremely high awareness and suspicion of atlantoaxial ligament injuries in the spine to help prevent permanent nerve and spinal cord injuries.

We are the only institute that uses integrated stem cell patches with scaffolding matrix and complex 3D image-guided procedures for exact targeting and visualization during upper cervical spine procedures. The atlanto-axial (C1-2) & atlanto-occipital (C0-1) joints of the upper cervical spine are synovial joints with cartilage, capsule, ligaments, but no disc, hence they can have many problems similar to other joints in the body, including erosive arthritis, ligament instabilities, chondromalacia, effusion, cysts, collapse, autoimmune damage, osteophytes, ligament injuries, adjacent facet arthrosis, capsular instabilities, cartilage damage, as well as unique consequences of nerve compression, neuropathy, myelopathy, and involvement of brachial plexus, cranial nerves, brainstem, and spinal cord. We are also one of the only places on earth that can target and treat highly complex injuries throughout the body with minimally-invasive high-resolution 3D-guided technologies. Dr. McMurtrey combines his training in neurosurgery, orthopedic trauma surgery, and minimally-invasive interventions with his expertise in tissue engineering and stem cell research at the University of Oxford to advance the field of regenerative medicine to provide customized treatment plans specific to patient's injuries and conditions.

www.AlpineSpineOrthopedics.com

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41343684/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29145335/

12/08/2025

Dr McMurtrey in action-- the details revealed by our intraoperative 3D procedural guidance never cease to impress!

Copyright ©️ 2025 ASOI

$A snapshot of a very unique case of a pars fracture patient who had already undergone buck screws (aka direct pars screw...$

12/08/2025

A snapshot of a very unique case of a pars fracture patient who had already undergone buck screws (aka direct pars screw repair) at a very well-known prestigious hospital system, but the screws had eroded the bone causing bony lucency and loosening around the screws (which can often eventually happen in these cases with small screws in thin bone especially in young athletes). This young patient had excruciating unresolved pain and their surgeon only gave the option of replacing the screws with a full fusion, which they did not want to do. They asked if we could do the stem cell matrix patching procedure around the screws, and we stated many reasons that it might fail but they still wanted to try. Dr. McMurtrey said it was actually a beautiful procedure testing 3D skills to find the thin empty cystic erosions around the loose screws, which he was able to fill perfectly, as well as patching the facet joints above and below the screws.

In this case the patient returned to us for imaging on our 3D cone-beam scanner which has radiation-minimization protocols, metal-artefact reduction, and ultra-high resolution slice production, which showed good filling of the erosive bone defects. The patient said she had no more pain and the parents wrote the following review:

“After years of visits for our daughter with multiple specialists and even a failed back surgery (with screws placed in her spine), we finally found Dr. McMurtrey…. Since his procedure, our daughter has experienced a dramatic turnaround. For the first time in five years, she is completely pain-free, and she has regained the ability to be active — something we never expected back then. Dr. McMurtrey’s knowledge, professionalism, and compassion stood out from the start. He took the time to explain everything clearly, answered all our questions, and made us feel confident and our daughter cared for throughout the process. His expertise in stem cell treatment is second to none. We are beyond grateful to Dr. McMurtrey and the team at Alpine Spine & Orthopedics. He gave our daughter a chance at a normal, pain-free life again — something we thought might never happen. We are forever thankful!"

12/08/2025

Every day we see complex, fascinating, and unique cases that each take an incredible amount of time, knowledge, and attention to detail. Over the Thanksgiving break we received follow-up imaging from 3 pars patching patients, each of them unique in several ways. There are hundreds of variables involved in each patient, hundreds of variables in each procedure, and hundreds of variables in each patch design which can be tweaked with the stem cell concentration, scaffolding densities (fibrin/collagen/bone graft), and signaling factors combinations.

Impressively all 3 of these patients had clear evidence of repair occurring on MRI & CT as well as no symptoms of pain even with activity. One is a child of an orthopedic surgeon. In most cases a trocar is used to pe*****te cortical surfaces depending on the nature of the fracture and bone quality, and here a clear ossification can be seen around 4 months post-op even though there is only partial bridging with a portion of the defects still visible with ongoing active remodeling. All fractures in any bone will have fibrotic scarring and defects that can be seen for many years after the fracture, so it will never look brand new, but the point is to get bridging and stability of the fracture as well as reinforcement and repair of discs, facets, ligaments, and nerves. Patients may choose to get follow-up imaging with MRI and/or CT: the MRI is better at showing discs, nerves, facets, cartilage, ligaments, and the state of the stem cell patches as they form new connective tissue bridging; however, the MRI is not ideal for looking at details of bone/calcification/fractures whereas CT is better at showing the detailed shape of the fracture and the latter stages of ossification. The Stem Cell + PRF autograft patching procedure recapitulates the natural mechanisms of tissue repair utilizing bone marrow stem cells with sticky biomaterial scaffolding matrix & minimally-invasive 3D image-guidance to bridge, repair, patch, reinforce, and rebuild tissue.

Copyright ©️ 2025 ASOI

$Another patient who came in with chronic back pain and an MRI where the radiologist had not noticed the pars fractures n...$

12/08/2025

Another patient who came in with chronic back pain and an MRI where the radiologist had not noticed the pars fractures nor the Bertolotti’s syndrome, but Dr. McMurtrey noticed it at first glance. As with all our older patients with long-term pars fractures, the chances of complete repair and resolution are lower for numerous reasons, including increasing fracture gap over time, increased instability, additional strain on the disc, facets, and ligaments over time, degenerative and sclerotic changes in the bone, as well as with anatomic anomalies and so on. Yet we have seen numerous cases of healing even with older age chronic pars fractures where the stem cell patches gave new life and new healing (this was our 3rd patient over age 60 to have successful pars fracture repair). The bone is probed and if needed pe*****ted with trocar to enable bridging through cortical surfaces. Even in cases where full ossification does not occur, it can still stabilize the fracture with connective tissue patching and also help discs, facets, ligaments, and adjacent tissues (which can be targeted in detail depending on your imaging findings and specific injuries). Physical therapy is also important in this healing process which is why we give specific instructions to every patient to protect neutral spine positioning while also working on engaging core muscles with isometric core exercises and no impact loading during healing. The Stem Cell + PRF autograft patching procedure recapitulates the natural mechanisms of fracture repair utilizing bone marrow stem cells with sticky biomaterial scaffolding matrix and minimally-invasive 3D image-guidance.

Copyright ©️ 2025 ASOI

12/08/2025

Honored to treat a wide array of critical cases from the most elite athletes to the most debilitating complex cases, each patient presents unique challenges that require deep knowledge, skills, and attention to detail, and we are on the cutting-edge of the most advanced minimally-invasive interventions for numerous injuries and conditions using ultra-high-resolution 3D image-guidance and unique customized 3D stem cell patching techniques.

Copyright © 2025
Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute

12/08/2025

Dr McMurtrey first used patients' own cells to reprogram and rebuild 3D neural tissue and neural networks in the lab on nanopatterned scaffolding over a decade ago. Here are some of the first 3D patterned neural tissues and first multi-electrode array recordings done on living cerebral organoid “mini-brains” as proof-of-concept work on neural regeneration and functional neural activity using a patient’s own cells converted into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) then redirected to various neuroglial lineages. Dr McMurtrey discovered how essential the scaffolding matrix design was to the patterning and integration of these new neural tissue constructs. After operating on several traumatic neurosurgical cases which felt more like damage control without actually fixing or repairing any neural function nor restoring any neural function (cases of spinal cord injury, brain hemorrhage, stroke, and penetrating trauma), Dr. McMurtrey quickly realized the vast limitations of surgery and thus applied his deep knowledge and talents to researching regenerative stem cell therapies and tissue engineering to build the future of how neurological and othopedic injuries can be treated.

Copyright © 2025
Richard J. McMurtrey, MD, MSc
Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute

11/03/2025

The Future of 3D Stem Cell Tissue Engineering Interventions:

We are designing numerous types of stem cell hydrogel scaffolds and patches with signaling factors for repairing a wide variety of tissue injuries and conditions.

Dr Richard J McMurtrey MD MSc is the master of biomaterial scaffolds and cellular tissue engineering. Over the last decade he has published ground-breaking work creating the first 3D neural tissue from patients' own cells by reprogramming them into stem cells and culturing on 3D nano-patterned biocompatible scaffolds where new neurons formed new synaptic connections by following signaling cues. At that time Yamanaka had not even won the Nobel prize yet for his stem cell work. This was cutting edge back then and still today, and has further expanded into numerous orthopedic applications. It's beautiful to see his work finally being taken on by top universities for future clinical applications. The hope is to soon apply further discoveries to promote even better healing and repair in many more types of tissue damage.

Using patient's own mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), Dr McMurtrey creates natural biomaterial scaffolds to help stem cells bind, integrate, and rebuild tissue injuries. There are even more types of natural and synthetic biocompatible scaffoldings in research phase both with our institute and others. Dr. McMurtrey continues leading research work with 3D stem cell patches that are placed with minimally-invasive 3D image-guided techniques.

www.AlpineSpineOrthopedics.com

Images show applications in ligament reinforcement and repair: "Mechanical Reinforced and Self-healing Hydrogels: Bioprinted Biomimetic Methacrylated Collagen Peptide-Xanthan Gum Constructs for Ligament Regeneration" Weng et al.

11/02/2025

Proof that our stem cell patching techniques can truly repair cartilage and meniscus:

We got follow-up imaging confirming repair of both cartilage and meniscus injuries with side-by-side comparisons (screenshots above, even more apparent when reviewing all images, independent third-party unbiased radiologist confirmatiom unaware of treatments).

PRE-TREATMENT REPORT:
"Vertical longitudinal tear at the periphery of the body of the medial meniscus. Partial-thickness chondral fissuring of the lateral patellar facet with a small chondral flap."

POST- STEM CELL PATCHING TREATMENTS:
(same facility, same radiologist, side-by-side comparison, blinded to treatment):
"The medial meniscus is intact. The articular cartilage of the patellofemoral compartment is preserved. No abnormality identified."

www.AlpineSpineOrthopedics.com/

Copyright © 2025 Richard J. McMurtrey MD, MSc
Alpine Spine & Orthopedics Institute
All Rights Reserved

$Consequences of Spine Surgery: What started as a single-level pars fracture repair eventually ended up as a classic exam...$

11/02/2025

Consequences of Spine Surgery: What started as a single-level pars fracture repair eventually ended up as a classic example of catastrophic consequences later in life. This is not just an extreme example, spine surgeries have high failure and complication rates, and these kinds of cases are surprisingly common. Many studies suggest nearly a 50% rate of failed back surgery (see article screenshots), and even if the surgery goes well, patients will eventually need revision surgeries and extensions of fusion later in life due to the natural mechanical consequences, especially when fusions are done at a young age, it typically leads to a lifetime of revision surgeries.

Many of the complex surgeries that Dr. McMurtrey did had already undergone a dozen or more revisions by other surgeons that had been complicated by numerous problems, including adjacent segment disease, nerve injuries, scar tissue, CSF leaks, failed hardware, poor corrective curvatures, sagittal imbalance, scoliosis, proximal junctional kyphosis, infections, and other degenerative effects, requiring further extensions of fusion to the point where he did many full length Cranium to Sacrum Fusions and pinned the SI joints that had destabilized below the fusion. He did numerous approaches from anterior, posterior, lateral, oblique, and transforaminal techniques, and had to account for numerous factors and also manage numerous complications in the ICU. As part of this patient’s failed back surgery syndrome above, note the progression of adjacent segment disc disease, straight back syndrome, proximal junctional kyphosis, spinal deformity and muscle atrophy.

Dr. McMurtrey saw the pain and suffering of these patients daily, and he always thought that if he could have saved them from the first surgery that it would have avoided a lifetime of suffering, which is why he forged a different path using new ground-breaking regenerative tissue engineering techniques, and his 3D spinal tissue engineering research work continues onward!

(Images from “Surgical Planning of Sagittal Alignment in Degenerative Lumbar Spine” SDSF.)

$Impressive repair of unstable L5 pars fractures in a 32 year old where the fractures extended into the facets, especiall...$

08/18/2025

Impressive repair of unstable L5 pars fractures in a 32 year old where the fractures extended into the facets, especially on the left where L5 nerve root was compressed due to a combination of disc bulge, fracture edge, facet arthrosis, instability, and 7mm of spondylolisthesis with 4-7mm fracture gaps. At 3 months post-op, the patient chose to repeat these procedures to further reinforce healing of all structures, and 3D CT confirmed new partial bridging and ossification on the lateral margins on both sides of the fracture! There has since been further bridging, partial ossification bilaterally on lateral margins with continued integration and remodeling of connective tissue patches medially, and diminished marrow edema stress reaction throughout. Both right and left sides have portions that re-bridged and re-fused. Interestingly, the spondylolisthesis on both static and dynamic flexion/extension imaging has reduced from 7mm down to 4mm and the dynamic translation has completely resolved down to 0mm showing complete stabilization per independent unbiased radiologist reports. The primary concern thus remains the facet joint cartilage damage, but the facet cartilage and contour appear much improved and patient also reports no more nerve/back pain since treatment except minor facet pain if overlifting, and this should continue to remodel and repair even further over time.

The Stem Cell + PRF autograft patching approach recapitulates the natural mechanisms of fracture repair utilizing bone marrow stem cells with sticky scaffolding. This is done minimally-invasively with 3D image-guidance to bridge, repair, reinforce, and rebuild tissue.

Copyright ©️ 2025 ASOI
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