New York Back and Neck Injury Attorneys

Hach & Rose, LLP Working for You

Serious neck and back injuries can cost personal injury victims hundreds of thousands of dollars. The medical bills for treatment, prescription drugs, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and more can pile up quickly. At Hach & Rose, LLP, our team of highly skilled New York personal injury attorneys will put their knowledge and experience to use on your back or neck injury case. We will fight tirelessly to make sure that you receive the maximum compensation you deserve.

Accidents involving back or neck injuries are usually among the most complex personal injury cases. The last thing you want to do is try to handle your case alone. Allow an attorney who is well-versed in back and neck injuries to take care of every aspect of your case so you can focus on your recovery.

Understanding Your Medical Treatments and Options

Your healthcare providers will be able to advise you on the range of treatments that may benefit your back and neck injury. You may benefit from specific medications, epidural steroid injections, surgery or multiple surgeries, and less invasive options, such as spinal manipulations under anesthesia. No matter what your treatment involves, you should be able to benefit from all the treatments your physicians recommend for you today, as well as the treatments they will likely recommend for you in the future, such as rehabilitation and physical therapy.

That’s why it’s crucial that you hire an attorney who’s not only well-versed in the laws related to your back and neck injury, but who also thoroughly understands your back and neck pain and related medical needs. A skilled back and neck lawyer will grasp the importance of the treatment you need, and will work skillfully to ensure that your present and future medical expenses are accounted for.

Epidural Steroid Injections

Epidural steroid injections are commonly used, minimally invasive procedures to help people deal with pain in many locations of the body, including the back and neck. The injections provide temporary relief for pain but do not fix the cause of the pain.

A cervical epidural steroid injection treats pain in the neck and the upper region of the back. Numerous conditions may cause neck and upper back pain, such as a herniated disc, pinched nerves, and strained muscles.

People with the following conditions are typically strong candidates for epidural steroid injections:

• Spinal stenosis
• Herniated disc
• Degenerative disc
• Spondylolisthesis
• Sciatica

Types of Back Surgeries

In addition to reducing pain, back surgery can have a wide range of benefits. After back surgery, you may be able to move around better, your mood may improve, and you may no longer need to take as much medicine for pain. Back surgery may also allow you to return to work and be productive again.

Common types of back surgeries include:

• Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty – These are similar procedures used to treat vertebral compression fractures. When a vertebral compression fracture is left untreated, you may experience debilitating pain and a hunched back. Compression fractures can be caused by an injury. In the vertebroplasty procedure, bone cement is inserted into the fracture through a long needle. The cement is inserted into each affected vertebrae. In more severe spinal compression cases, a kyphoplasty is performed, in which a balloon is inserted and inflated to lift the compressed vertebrae back to a normal height. After the vertebrae are lifted, bone cement is inserted into the heightened space. The bone cement strengthens the vertebrae, prevents further collapse, and reduces pain.
• Discectomy – This procedure is used to remove a herniated disk, which can occur in any part of the spine and irritate a nearby nerve.
• Facetectomy – A degenerating facet joint may become enlarged or develop bone spurs, leading to compression of a nearby nerve. A small portion of a facet joint may need to be removed to gain access to a problematic disc. In either situation, a facetectomy is performed.
• Foraminotomy – This procedure is used to reduce pain associated with a compressed spinal nerve. The surgeon cuts away bone at the sides of the vertebrae to widen the space where the nerves exit. The extra room can relieve pressure on the nerves and ease the pain. This procedure can also make the spine less stable, so the surgeon may perform a spinal fusion at the same time, which will increase your recovery time.
• Nucleoplasty – This minimally invasive laser surgery uses radiofrequency energy to treat patients with lower back pain caused by a herniated disk. The surgeon inserts a needle into the disk, and then a plasma laser device is inserted into the needle, and the tip is heated. This creates a field that vaporizes the tissue in the disk, reducing its size and relieving nerve pressure.
• Spinal fusion – This involves removing the spinal disk between two or more vertebrae, then fusing the adjacent vertebrae with bone grafts or metal devices and screws. Spinal fusion may result in loss of flexibility in the spine and requires a long recovery to allow the bone grafts to grow and fuse the vertebrae together.
• Laminectomy – With this procedure, the surgeon removes parts of the bone, bone spurs, or ligaments in the back. While this relieves pressure on spinal nerves and can reduce pain, the procedure can make your spine less stable. If that occurs, you will likely need a spinal fusion as well. Doctors sometimes do the two procedures together.
• Artificial disk replacement – An alternative to spinal fusion for those with seriously damaged disks, this involves removal of the disk and its replacement by a synthetic disk that helps restore height and movement between the vertebrae.
• Interlaminar implant – In this surgery, the surgeon places a U-shaped device between two vertebrae in the lower back, which helps keep the space between them open and eases pressure on the spinal nerves. Unlike spinal fusion, the implant provides stability. However, you may not be able to bend backward as easily.