S I Joint Surgery to Relieve Chronic Back Pain

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A middle Georgia doctor is using innovative technology to relieve people from chronic back pain.

Dr. Kevin Stevenson of Piedmont Orthopedics in Macon, says S I Joint surgery uses minimal invasive technology to successfully treat patients, who thought living with their pain would be a way of life.

“There’s so many people who’ve been told there’s nothing wrong with you,” says Dr. Stevenson. “Your back shouldn’t hurt, or they’ve had back surgery that’s not been successful. There’s a large group of people in that mix, and with this surgery there’s a possibility, that their chronic back pain, or the pain they’ve been told shouldn’t exist, can actually be treated.”

There are test designed to determine if S I Joint surgery is necessary. The actual surgery takes about 45 minutes, according to Dr. Stevenson.

“We make about a one inch incision on the side of the leg, and then we go directly to the S-I Joint, between the wing and the pelvis and the tail bone, and using X-ray guidance we place three pins across the joint after which we drill a little channel, and place three titanium implants across the joint to stabilize it,” he added.

The surgeon said S I Joint pain can be extremely disabling. One of his former patients, Mallary Pavlik knows first hand about S I Joint pain.

Pavlik was injured in a car accident in November.

She had the procedure done several weeks ago and now she says she is able to bend over and touch her toes without pain.

“The surgery went great,” says Pavlik. “Prior to surgery I had a hard time with just daily living activities,  such as housework and school work and different stuff that I had to do.”

She says Stevenson kept her informed about what to expect from the procedure.

“He is very straight forward and to the point which I love about him,” she said. “I don’t like doctors who won’t tell you what we need to do to fix it. He’s to the point.”

Stevenson said he is concerned about the large number of people suffering from chronic back pain that have no idea it stems from their S I Joint.

“I think it’s really important that people who have back pain, who’ve been told there’s nothing wrong with you or been told it’s arthritis and that they should just live with it, those people should ask to have their S-I Joint evaluated and tested, because, it could very well be coming from their sacroiliac joint,” he added.