Treating Back Problems

Balgrist University Hospital has played a pioneering role in spinal medicine for the last 100 years. With yesterday’s inauguration of the highly-specialized University Spine Center Zurich, it is setting a new course for the future. The new center is designed to provide patients who have spinal problems with comprehensive, holistic diagnosis and treatment at the highest level.

The spine center will serve as a central contact point for both patients and referring physicians, offering everything from advice and diagnosis to surgery, therapy, and rehabilitation. At the same time, University Spine Center Zurich intends to develop pioneering diagnosis and treatment methods by way of interdisciplinary research and innovation.

Unique in the world

The center bundles spinal surgery, physical medicine and rheumatology, chiropractic, neurology, neuro-urology, musculoskeletal radiology, anesthesia and pain therapy, plus interdisciplinary spinal research and development. It thus offers patients the entire spectrum of spinal medicine, including treatment for the consequences of spinal degeneration, bone marrow diseases, and complex deformities and tumors in children and adults.

The new center is headed by Professor Mazda Farshad, spine surgeon and medical director of Balgrist University Hospital, and Professor Armin Curt, senior physician and director of the Spinal Cord Injury Center.

“The center is one of a kind,” says Mazda Farshad: “Collaboration between the different disciplines makes the spine center a world-leading platform, providing patients with holistic diagnosis and treatment at the very highest university level. Not only this, but linking the various disciplines in clinical cooperation and research has the potential to achieve significant advances in spinal medicine and create an outstanding platform for academic career development.”