Doctor Profile: Alex Mierke, MD

Dr. Mierke: My name is Alex Mierke. I’m an orthopedic spine surgery specialist here at Florida Orthopaedic Institute. I treat a variety of spinal disorders, various pathology, including degenerative conditions, deformity, trauma, and tumors of the spine. People come because they have a variety of spinal conditions. They have back pain, neck pain, pain running down into the arms, into the legs, and various neurologic conditions. It’s our goal to try to find what is the cause of that pain. Sometimes things need surgical intervention to treat, but other times patients just need conservative management. They need things like physical therapy and anti-inflammatories, and a lot of times the body can help resolve a lot of these issues on its own with time. And so it’s our goal to try to find which patients need surgery, which patients don’t, and treat every patient individually.

So my parents both underwent orthopedic surgeries about 10 years ago. My mother had a fractured wrist and my father had bad osteoarthritis of his hip. And so when patients come to see me, I really try to keep my parents in mind and try to find out, how can I return this patient from a state of pain and disability to full recovery over the course of several weeks to months? That’s really my goal when I see patients; it’s a very patient-centered approach. Try to sit down and have a frank conversation with them. Get the history. Why are they coming in to see us? Where’s their pain coming from? Physical exam – try to see if there’s any objective neurologic findings that we can find, and then review the imaging with them. I like to sit down with every patient, look at their x-rays, look at their MRIs or their CTs, and show them where I think that their pathology is coming from and what we need to do about it.

What sets Florida Orthopaedic Institute apart from other institutions is the quality of the physicians. The physicians that they have at Florida Orthopaedic Institute are top-notch. They’re the best in their field, and not just spine surgery, but most specialties. I know that firsthand the level of care that the physicians provide to their patients is second to none.