News

When Kumar Vasudevan, MD, a WashU Medicine neurosurgeon at Christian Hospital, meets with patients to discuss if spine surgery is right for them, he shares that their path to pain relief starts before he puts on his surgical scrubs and extends after the operation is complete.

At Barnes-Jewish Hospital, two WashU Medicine physicians, David Brogan, MD, MSc, and Christopher Dy, MD, MPH, are working on new ways to treat brachial plexus damage, a serious nerve injury. These often occur after major accidents, such as car crashes, and can have a big impact on a person’s ability to use their arm and hand.

But the minor twinge that started after one of her regular weight-lifting sessions soon grew into intense shoulder pain with accompanying arm and wrist weakness that threatened to sidetrack her busy life. She had a ruptured disc in her cervical (neck) spine.

Imagine waking up one day with a strange sensation in your legs. It’s not pain exactly, but it’s not normal — you don’t quite feel like your brain is coordinating with your limbs.

Bill Bunch’s favorite activities include golfing, tending to his yard, and playing catch with his grandson. Each one became more difficult and less enjoyable for the retiree during a six-year span in which a worsening back condition affected his hips, legs, and feet.

Two wheels sped down a rural Missouri highway, and a 14-year-old fell in love. “It was a freedom feeling,” Tom Waller says, more than six decades after his first motorcycle ride. “And I’ve never lost it.

Staying active helps maintain joint flexibility and balance, promotes better posture and strengthens bones.

If you can make one change to mitigate your chances of getting colorectal cancer, it should be this one.

Whether you’re 45 and going for your first screening colonoscopy or having symptoms you’d like to get checked out, you might have questions about what happens during the procedure and how you can prepare.

Too young for colorectal cancer? Think again.