#242 Dr. Ardavan Aslie - The Truth Behind Spine Surgery

Dr. Aslie is a Board Certified, Harvard University Fellow Spine Surgeon who received his undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Aslie received a bachelor’s degree in physiology and another bachelor’s degree in genetics. Dr. Aslie maintained a grade point average of 3.9 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Aslie attended medical school at New York Medical College where he continued excellent academic performance. At the end of the academic portion of medical school, which is the first two years, Dr. Aslie was ranked number one in his class. Dr. Aslie continued his excellent performance throughout his clinical years and obtained honors in all his major clinical rotations.

Dr. Aslie completed his residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City under the supervision of internationally known scoliosis surgeon, Dr. Thomas Haher. Dr. Aslie went on to receive his spine surgery fellowship training at Harvard University where he trained under the supervision on the world renowned forefather of spine surgery, Dr. Augustus White. After graduation, Dr. Aslie has remained quite active in continuing education and contributes regularly as a guest speaker at conferences. In addition, Dr. Aslie has been quite active in research and development and holds multiple patents on a revolutionary new device and techniques for fixation of the osteoporotic and aging spine.

During his first three years of practice, Dr. Aslie became aware of a significant challenge confronting patients who underwent spinal surgery. He realized that the only device available for fixation of multiple vertebrae was a large screw which was placed inside each individual bone and required the vertebrae to be connected by a metal rod. As people who underwent this operation would age, cancellous bone inside the vertebrae would become increasingly weak and in an unacceptably high number of instances the screw would lose its grip causing older patients to require multiple surgeries.

Solving this problem became Dr. Aslie’s main priority and finally, after years of research and study, Dr. Aslie developed the laminar plating system. This device takes advantage of outside bone known as “cortical bone” which is not affected by aging as much as the cancellous bone inside the vertebrae. Dr. Aslie’s laminar plating system is secured against the vertebrae using composite straps that wrap around the bone instead of penetrating it and the device eliminates the pressure points created by metal devices. Lastly, one final aspect which makes Dr. Aslie’s device so effective is that his device’s special composite straps are stronger than steel straps of the same size.

There were six crucial steps which needed to be taken to develop this device. Attacking this problem with the mentality that failure was not an option, Dr. Aslie was able to take each of these crucial steps and invent the laminar plating system which he now holds multiple patents for.

It is this relentless pursuit of perfection that makes Dr. Aslie and his practice special to his patients.