Overview
The Spine Center at St. Mary's Medical Center has provided comprehensive care for spine conditions for more than 30 years.  A multi-disciplinary team composed of spine surgeons and non-surgical spine specialists offer patients latest treatments while working to develop innovative new procedures and technologies.

St. Mary's Spine Center offers minimally invasive techniques and surgeons who are pioneers in the field of spinal surgery. They are among the foremost innovators in the world in new surgical techniques and have developed many of the improvements in minimally invasive surgery.

X STOP®
Surgeons at St. Mary's Spine Center invented the X STOP implant designed to treat lumbar spinal stenosis, a painful condition in which degenerated spine tissue pinch nearby nerves. The condition is the most common cause of surgery for adults over the age of 50 affecting an estimated 400,000 Americans.

The X STOP can be implanted using a minimally invasive procedure performed under local anesthesia and light sedation in about an hour. It is an excellent option for patients who do not respond to conservative therapies or are unable to undergo the risks of major surgery and want to return to functioning pain-free as soon as possible.  Many patients who receive the X STOP implant go home in about a day and typically recover within two weeks.

FDA approval of the X STOP was received in November 2005 and St. Mary's Spine Center serves as the national training center.  All U.S. physicians who wish to use the device must be trained under the leadership of St. Mary's Spine Center surgeons.

Surgeons
Ken Hsu, MD, Director of Spine Surgery
James Zucherman, MD, Medical Director
Matthew Hannibal, MD, Director of Research

Location
St. Mary's Medical Center
450 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA  94117

For general information, please call (415) 668-1000
or visit our website at:  www.stmarysmedicalcenter.org

Media Contact:
Erin Bartlett
Work - (415) 750-5787
Mobile - (415) 254-3379
erin.bartlett@chw.edu