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Dr. Bryant Turbeville

A person with chronic back pain has two local options when seeking medical care.

One is Dr. Bryant Turbeville, a psysiatrist who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation. The other is Dr. Phillip R. Kravetz, an orthopedic surgeon who can do all manner of care, but prefers to work with spines.

Both work at OrthoArkansas in Little Rock.

"Initially what got me into this particular field (is that) what we do really affects people's lives, a lot," said Turbeville, a Little Rock native. "Someone dealing with chronic pain issues, when they come in, you can really be able to improve the quality of their lives."

Turbeville also spends much of his time working with the patients.

"The advantage of physical therapy is, and this is the example I always tell the patients, if I wanted to teach a child how to ride, I could give them a handout on how to ride a bike ... but they don't know what it feels like," he said. "And that's the same thing with these exercise programs. There is a right way and a wrong way, and a patient is a lot more likely to perform their program if they know how it is supposed to feel.

"I have the luxury of time," Turbeville said. "I can really sit down with them. Go over all their medications. Take a good history, do a physical exam. That's one thing that is different. I can actually do that."

There are other time-related concerns for the orthopods.

"I just don't have the time," Kravetz said. "I can only see so many people and still have a good quality of care."

Another factor is the length of the procedures that Kravetz performs.

"I do some things that take 30 minutes," he said. "And some things that take 12 hours. [For example] kyphoplasty, that's a great procedure, but it is a 30-minute procedure and that's also a great procedure for the patient. Then I'll do an adult scoli surgery and that will take 10 or 12 hours. I'd guess that the average is going to be three or four hours for a surgery."

For Kravetz, the surgical work is a little different.

"I do everything," he said. "From a simple herniated disk to an adult scoli reconstruction to a complex neck ... I do a lot of minimally invasive stuff."

It isn't all work in the clinic, even though he estimates he spends about half of his regular workweek in the clinic.

"I take spine trauma call," Kravetz said. "I take all my calls at Baptist and I'll go a week at a time on call. We do a lot of surgeries there, and I like to do the spine work. Give me a broken back over a broken ankle anytime."

And after Kravetz gets down, the next step is Turbeville.

"My patient practice is dealing with those post surgical folks," he said, "and also those folks who have had strokes or spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injuries. But this practice is strictly outpatients. ... We have a great [physical] therapy department here and are working closely with the therapist to increase activity and exercise in those patients. The main thing I do is to improve their function."

Turbeville will also do injections and nerve conduction studies, all to improve the quality of life for the patients.

"That is the most satisfying," he said, "when you see people who have chronic back pain and they are able to get on with their lives."

ie.
October 2006

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