Home / Specialties
Specialties
What Dr. Garber treats
Dr. Garber's focus areas and how he approaches each one. For full patient guides, follow the links to Las Vegas Neurosurgical Institute.
Cervical artificial disc replacement
When a worn or herniated disc in the neck presses on a nerve or the spinal cord, the traditional fix is to remove it and fuse the two bones together. Artificial disc replacement removes the disc the same way, then puts in a motion-preserving implant instead of a fusion.
Dr. Garber leads the Disc Replacement Center of Las Vegas. Candidates usually have arm pain, numbness or weakness from one or two discs, with healthy joints behind them. Many patients return to desk work within two to three weeks.
Complex and revision spine surgery
His fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin focused on complex spine reconstruction: multi-level disease, instability, deformity and failed earlier operations.
For patients who still hurt after a previous surgery, he starts by finding out why. A new level may have worn out, a fusion may not have healed, or a nerve may still be compressed. Then he plans the smallest operation that fixes that cause.
Minimally invasive spine surgery
Many decompressions and some fusions can be done through small incisions with tubular retractors, working between the muscles rather than stripping them from the bone.
Patients often have less pain after surgery and a shorter hospital stay. Not every problem suits a small incision, and he'll tell you when a traditional open approach is safer.
Peripheral nerve and brachial plexus surgery
The brachial plexus is the network of nerves running from the neck into the arm. Injuries from falls, car crashes and sports can leave the shoulder or hand weak or numb. Nerves in the arms and legs can also be trapped or develop tumors.
This is a specialized area of neurosurgery. Timing matters with nerve injuries, so an early evaluation keeps more options open.
Spinal cord stimulation for chronic back pain
For patients with long-term back pain who aren't candidates for corrective surgery, a spinal cord stimulator can reduce pain by changing the signals traveling up the spinal cord. A short trial comes first, so you know whether it helps before anything is permanently implanted.
Dr. Garber took part as a clinical investigator in DISTINCT, a randomized multicenter trial of burst spinal cord stimulation in people with chronic low back pain and no surgical options.
Brain (intracranial) disorders
As a fully trained neurosurgeon, Dr. Garber also treats conditions inside the skull, including tumors, bleeding and fluid problems, together with his colleagues at Las Vegas Neurosurgical Institute.