Stony Brook Spine Institute
Leading the Way in Comprehensive Spine Care Excellence
Welcome to the Stony Brook Spine Institute.
At the Stony Brook Spine Institute, our multidisciplinary team of experts works together to provide seamless, patient-centered care for both children and adults. As a member of the American Spine Registry, we’re committed to delivering advanced, personalized treatment through a collaborative approach that brings together specialists from across the institution, including neurosurgery, orthopedics, pain management and physiatry.
From your first consultation to recovery, we ensure every aspect of your care is tailored to your unique needs. Our institute is equipped with advanced technology, enabling precise diagnostics and minimally invasive procedures that promote accelerated recovery and improved outcomes.
By uniting expertise from multiple disciplines, we provide comprehensive care for all spinal conditions from the most common to the rare and complex.
Conditions Treated
Spinal conditions such as herniated discs, scoliosis and spinal stenosis can disrupt your life. At the Stony Brook Spine Institute, we specialize in restoring mobility and improving quality of life through personalized care.
A condition (not actually a disease) where the discs of the spine break down, causing pain and other problems in the spine. This condition commonly affects the neck (cervical) and lower back (lumbar) regions of the spine. These are the two regions of the spine that move more than the other regions, resulting in more wear.
A spinal deformity where the lower spine loses its natural inward curve, causing individuals to lean forward.
Occurs when the soft center of a spinal disc pushes through a tear in its tougher outer ring.
A serious condition where a bone fails to heal properly after a fracture or a surgical fusion. It results in an unstable, mobile gap that can cause chronic pain and deformity.
Can be primary (originating in the spine) or metastatic (spreading from other body parts.
Unnatural curvatures of the spine
- Kyphosis: An exaggerated outward curve of the upper spine (hunchback).
- Scoliosis: A side-to-side curve of the backbone, usually shaped like an "S" or "C".
A term used to describe the narrowing of the spine, that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves and can cause pain.
Where one vertebra slips forward over the one below it, most commonly in the lower back.
Spine Institute Services
The Spine Institute provides a full spectrum of services to address your spinal health needs. We take a conservative approach to your care. We carefully evaluate your symptoms and recommend the imaging and treatment options that are best suited to your individual needs, always with a focus on achieving the best outcome while minimizing risk.
In some cases, this may mean starting with nonsurgical treatments to help improve function and relieve pain. In other situations, early surgery may be recommended to help prevent further decline and protect long-term function.
Spinal Surgical Procedures
If surgery is needed, our focus is on delivering high-quality, evidence-based care tailored to your specific spinal condition. We are committed to staying at the forefront of innovation and continuously incorporating the latest research and advances in spine care. Most importantly, we prioritize thoughtful, data-driven treatment approaches designed to achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients.
Our operating suites feature advanced tools, including intraoperative true CT imaging with the AIRO system, the Stryker Q intraoperative navigation system, continuous monitoring of spinal nerves and the ZEISS Kinevo Microscope.
A complex procedure typically considered when non-surgical treatments fail
Involves removing a damaged or diseased disc in the neck and replacing it with a prosthetic implant to relieve nerve pain while maintaining neck flexibility
A decompression surgery that relieves pressure on the spinal cord or nerves caused by spinal stenosis or herniated discs
- Medical techniques designed to minimize tissue damage, blood loss, and scarring using small incisions, fiber-optic cameras, and specialized tools. These techniques generally result in less post-operative pain and faster recoveries than traditional open procedures.
- Microdiscectomy: Minimally invasive spine surgery used to remove the herniated portion of a spinal disc that is pressing on a nerve.
- Spinal Fixation: A surgical procedure that uses hardware like metal screws, rods, and plates to mechanically stabilize the spine
- Spinal Fusion: A surgery that permanently joins two or more vertebrae to eliminate painful motion or stabilize an unstable spine
Reoperation on previous spinal surgery to help improve fusion and neural decompression
Management of injuries to vertebrae and nervous system after traumatic injuries including fusion and decompression and patient specific ICU care
Care that is focused on surgical resection, radiation, and targeted therapies
A fusionless surgical alternative to spinal fusion for adolescents with scoliosis of an unknown cause.
Rehabilitation and Non-Surgical Care
We focus on healing and strengthening your spine through comprehensive, conservative treatments. Our non-surgical services include:
- Medication management
Physical therapies- targeted stretches
- core strengthening exercises
- referral for alternative therapies (massage and acupuncture)
- Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program
Interventional Pain Management
When you need targeted relief from back and neck pain, we offer several advanced interventional procedures:
- Epidural steroid injections
- Facet joint injections
- Medial branch blocks and ablations
- Sacroiliac joint injections
- Trigger point injections
- Rhizotomy
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Kyphoplasty
- Basivertebral nerve ablation (Intracept® Procedure)
Our Team
At the Stony Brook Spine Institute our team of highly skilled specialists brings decades of experience and a shared commitment to excellence in spinal care. Combining expertise in neurosurgery, orthopaedics and pain management, our physicians work collaboratively to provide comprehensive treatment plans designed to meet each patient's unique needs.
Appointments and More Information
Call (631) 444-1213 or (631) 444-4233 to make an appointment or get more information from our offices.
Locations
With multiple locations across Suffolk County, we make it easy for you to access world-class spinal care close to home.
Commack
Advanced Specialty Care at Commack
500 Commack Road, Suites 201 and 205
Commack, NY 11725Lake Grove
Advanced Specialty Care at Lake Grove
4 Smith Haven Mall, Suites 103 and 105
Lake Grove, NY 11755Riverhead
New York Spine and Brain Surgery
54 Commerce Drive, Suite 7
Riverhead, NY 11901Advanced Specialty Care at Riverhead
74 Commerce Drive, Suite 4
Riverhead, NY 11901Southampton
Stony Brook Orthopaedic Associates
240 Meeting House Lane
Southampton, NY 11968
Our Spine Institute is a member of the American Spine Registry (ASR). This national quality improvement registry houses data on more than 500,000 procedures from more than 375 participating spine care sites that must meet rigorous criteria for inclusion. It serves as a source of consistent, reliable, quality information to improve spine care outcomes through the analysis of data on past spine procedures.
Research at the Spine Institute
At the Spine Institute, our experts in orthopedics and neurosurgery are advancing care through innovative research. Below, you'll find highlights from both fields, showcasing our commitment to improving outcomes for patients with spine conditions.
Orthopedics Research
Our orthopedic specialists are pioneering treatments and exploring new ways to enhance patient care. Current research highlights include:
Innovative Treatments for Scoliosis
- The Tether - Vertebral Body Tethering System: A groundbreaking alternative to spinal fusion surgery, The Tether uses a flexible cord to correct scoliosis while allowing for continued growth in young patients. This Humanitarian Use Device offers a promising option for those with progressive idiopathic scoliosis.
Patient Preferences for Surgeon Selection
- We're analyzing the factors patients prioritize when choosing a surgeon for scoliosis correction. This study helps us better understand and meet patient needs.
Guidelines for Returning to Play
- Our team is validating functional tests to guide safe return-to-play decisions for young athletes recovering from scoliosis surgery.
Dr. Barsi is leading spine research, with contributions from Drs. Lynch, Carrion, Zapolsky and McCalla.
For a deeper dive into our research, visit:
Spine Research: The Mushlin Lab
Led by Harry Mushlin, MD, the Mushlin Lab seeks to improve patient outcomes by pioneering and advancing better spine treatments, including new minimally invasive techniques, with the goal of contributing to reduced postoperative pain, minimized recovery times and restoration of neurological function after spinal cord injuries. We work collaboratively with colleagues throughout the Stony Brook Medicine, the Stony Brook University community and beyond.
Current research highlights include:
- Clinical spine research investigating surgical outcomes and predictive factors across traumatic and degenerative spine disease
- Clinical Randomized Trials in collaboration with Stony Brook Medicine colleagues in Radiation Oncology and Anesthesia to investigate the management of spinal metastasis and acute pain in spinal fusion
- Computational Investigation of abnormal gait function with collaboration from the Mofakham-Mikell Lab
- Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Research
- Pro Spine: Pioneering automated subclinical motor function assessment of SCI patients using advanced imaging and state-of-the-art machine learning tools
- Development of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) spine model for adjacent segment disease in collaboration with Stony Brook University colleagues in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
For a deeper dive into the Mushlin Lab’s neurosurgery spine research, visit this PubMed citation page.