St. Mary's Offers
Advanced Neurosurgical Procedures
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Drs. Pendleton and Pollard have been operating together for 18 years.
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You do not have to travel far from home
if you need brain or spinal surgery.
At St. Mary's Regional Medical Center,
neurosurgeons Barry Pollard, M.D., and
Bruce Pendleton, M.D., perform procedures
for conditions that include brain tumors, head
injuries and chronic back pain. Drs. Pollard
and Pendleton met while completing their
residency training at the University of
Oklahoma in the early 1980s, and they have
been operating together for 18 years.
At St. Mary's, Drs. Pollard and Pendleton
use advanced equipment, including an image-guided
surgery system that provides three-dimensional
views of the anatomy. This enables
them to place spinal implants with pinpoint
accuracy or target a brain tumor's exact
location. It also helps them to make smaller
incisions, which cause less damage to
surrounding tissues. This can lead to shorter
hospital stays and faster recoveries.
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Barry Pollard, M.D. Neurosurgeon
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Bruce Pendleton, M.D. Neurosurgeon
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Relieving Neck and Back Pain
Drs. Pollard and Pendleton are the only two
neurosurgeons in Northwest Oklahoma who
perform spinal surgery, including a new
procedure, artificial disk replacement, to
relieve severe neck pain.
The bones in the spine -- the vertebrae --
are separated by shock-absorbing disks,
which can degenerate or rupture due to
disease, injury or age. This can place pressure
on the surrounding nerves, resulting in pain,
numbness and weakness. Traditional surgical
treatment involves removing the damaged disk
and fusing the adjacent vertebrae with metal
plates, screws and a bone graft to stabilize the
neck and relieve the pressure on the nerves.
Although this procedure can offer excellent
results, its main disadvantage is a loss of
motion and flexibility in the neck.
In artificial disk replacement, the damaged
disk is removed and replaced with an implant.
The procedure is not right for everyone,
including patients with severe arthritis or
bone disease. "For patients who are eligible,
however, artificial disk replacement offers pain
relief without sacrificing all flexibility in the
neck," Dr. Pendleton says. The procedure was
approved last year by the Food and Drug
Administration.
Treatment for Cracked Vertebrae
Not all back pain is caused by disk damage.
The vertebrae can develop tiny cracks due to
osteoporosis, leading to pain and loss of height.
The physicians can perform a minimally
invasive procedure called kyphoplasty, which
involves injecting a cement-like material into
the fractured bone to stabilize it. "Kyphoplasty
is 90 percent effective in reducing back pain
due to osteoporotic fractures," Dr. Pollard says.
"People often assume that neurosurgery is
done only at large academic medical centers,"
Dr. Pendleton says. "We're proud to be offering
patients advanced care, close to home."
