Emmy-nominated composer Steve Sandberg, known for his work on Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer,” faced a decades-long struggle with back pain after a Mack truck hit him in England during the 1980s. The accident threw him into a street sign and set off a 40-year battle with debilitating pain.
Last year, Sandberg, 69, who resides on the Upper West Side, reached a breaking point. Despite years of physical therapy and chiropractic care, he was finding it increasingly difficult to walk and transport his equipment to gigs.
“I was getting very, very restricted in what I could do,” Sandberg told The Post. “It was hard to get anywhere.”
In September 2023, Sandberg decided to undergo a three-hour minimally invasive surgery at NYU Langone Health. Though apprehensive, he hoped it would finally alleviate his pain.
Dr. Charla R. Fischer, who performed the surgery, is one of only a few doctors in the U.S. skilled in the groundbreaking procedure known as endoscopic transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF). Sandberg’s case was complex: he had developed a cyst in a facet joint of his spine, two of his lumbar vertebrae were unstable, and the space around them had narrowed, causing pain in both legs.
“If there’s a lot of arthritis in the facet joints, you can get an outpouching of the joint capsule, known as a facet cyst,” Fischer explained. “It was pushing on his nerve roots and contributing to his pain.”
Fischer performed the surgery through two tiny incisions: one for a camera and another for her tools. She removed the joint with the cyst and the entire intervertebral disc. She then replaced it with a disc implant, a spacer, and a bone graft to encourage vertebrae fusion. Robotic techniques were used to insert screws and rods to stabilize the spine.
The advantage of this minimally invasive approach, Fischer said, is the minimal disruption to soft tissue, which leads to faster recovery times. “It really shows the ability to do what needs to be done in the spine without making large incisions or causing significant pain afterward,” said Fischer, co-director of the Endoscopic Spine Surgery Program at NYU Langone Health. “This is a home run surgery for some patients.”
This technique, pioneered in South Korea, was introduced in the New York area by NYU Langone Health. Fischer performs this procedure about 40 times a year.
For Sandberg, this surgery marked his second significant recovery. The truck crash had previously left him with a severely damaged liver, six broken ribs, and a punctured lung. This time, recovery was much smoother.
Fischer reported that Sandberg was doing well two weeks after surgery and was largely recovered by six weeks. The traditional, non-endoscopic version of TLIF typically requires a three-month recovery period.
Sandberg didn’t need a cane or walker but took medication to manage his pain. He used the recovery period to walk and stretch daily, even losing 30 pounds in the process. He can now ride his 10-speed bike for five or six miles, walk several blocks without pain, and carry a 20-pound keyboard with ease.
“Ten months later, I’ve got my life back,” Sandberg said with a smile. “I actually had no regrets; it was a fantastic thing to do.”
