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Dr. James Manzanares |
First spinal surgery performed
at Seaside Surgery Center
According to his wife, Courtney Eagleston is used to being a "guinea pig." The 79-year-old had an innovative spinal surgery several years ago, fusing vertebrae from the L2 to the sacrum. Now he was suffering from spinal stenosis at a level above his previous fusion. Spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the open spaces in the spine, which puts pressure on the spinal cord and on the nerves that pass through the openings. The result is often pain, tingling, numbness and muscle weakness in the affected limbs. In Eagleston's case, he was even having difficulty walking.
"I did not want to perform an extension of the fusion," explained orthopaedic surgeon James B. Manzanares, M.D. "That would have entailed removing the old rods and screws and putting in new ones and would have required a week to 10 days in the hospital and incurred a great deal of blood loss." Instead, Dr. Manzanares relieved the pressure in Eagleston's spine from the inside out, using a set of flexible instruments known as the
iO-Flex® system. He performed the hour-long operation at Seaside Surgery Center in Naples. It was the first spinal surgery conducted at the facility, which opened in November of 2015.
"The procedure is minimally invasive, preserving bone and stability. Nobody else in Naples does it; there are maybe 10 surgeons in Florida who do. I have done 80% fewer fusions since I began using this procedure. My patients recover faster, and lose less blood and I sleep well at night, knowing I do the right thing for my patients," says Manzanares.
Dr. Manzanares is with American Spine & Orthopaedic Institute with offices in Bonita Springs, Altamonte Springs, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. He was impressed with his first experience operating at Seaside. "The medical staff is awesome. The surgical technicians are extremely well trained. The equipment is state of the art. The Center brought in key pieces of equipment for this procedure and staff from Biotronics was present. All of the personnel were extremely professional and had excellent communication, with me and with the patient's family in the waiting room. I know Dr. Zehr (Robert J. Zehr, M.D., Co-founder and CEO/Medical Director), Dr. Biggs (H. Kurtis Biggs, D.O., Co-founder) and Dr. Goldberg (Steven M. Goldberg, M.D.) - they all epitomize integrity and quality and I am proud to be affiliated with them."
Mr. and Mrs. Eagleston were pleased as well. "Everybody was nice and they took good care of me. The surgery went well and so far it's working out the way they said it would," Eagleston enthused.
"Our daughter and grandson waited with me," continued Mrs. Eagleston. "The staff was very accommodating; they gave us progress reports and really put me at ease. He's not a spring chicken you know, many things could have gone wrong. This was much better than anything else!"
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