Spine Center Kaiserslautern

Closed

Contact information

(+49) 0631 3437 7600 (Phone)

Opening hours

Weekday	Hours
Saturday	Closed
Sunday	Closed
Monday	08:00 – 14:00
Tuesday	08:00 – 14:00
Wednesday	08:00 – 14:00
Thursday	08:00 – 14:00
Friday	08:00 – 14:00

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Meliva Spine Center Kaiserslautern is a private practice for orthopedics specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of spinal disorders. The practice was integrated into the Meliva MVZ Westpfalz in July 2025 and emerged from the former Back and Spine Center (RWZ) Dr. Käfer. In addition to the location in MEDIC Park Kaiserslautern, there is also a practice in Glan-Münchweiler that treats both publicly and privately insured patients.

The medical team, led by PD Dr. med. Wolfram Käfer and Michael Gonzalez, represents competence, experience, and individual care for all forms of back pain….

Treatments

Medical Consultation and Examination

A comprehensive discussion about the course of the illness to date is just as important as a thorough physical examination.

Diagnostic Imaging and Tests

If not already done, further diagnostic tests such as MRI or CT scans, bone density measurements, and possibly neurographic examinations will be arranged via referral to ensure we have identified the cause of your pain.

Outpatient Surgeries

Minor procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis. These primarily include surgical interventions such as the minimally invasive removal of disc material or the denervation of facet joints.

Individual Therapy

We will discuss your examination results with you and then jointly establish a “roadmap” for the treatment of your symptoms. We will remain your point of contact throughout this process.

Injections under CT Guidance

Depending on the cause of your pain, we administer painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications under CT guidance precisely where the source of the pain is located (“nerve root infiltration” or “facet infiltration”). In cases of constricted nerve roots or irritated joints, this leads to a reduction in swelling of the nerve and inflamed joint surfaces, the pain subsides, and surgery can often be avoided entirely or at least in the medium term. We pursue this strategy for as long as possible, especially in cases of increased surgical risk. In some instances—for example, when multiple facet joints are affected but only one is painful—these injections are also used diagnostically to clearly identify the specific, pain-causing joint.

Medications

Back pain prevents normal movement, leads to muscle tension and unhealthy protective postures—which further intensifies the pain—and disrupts the sleep that is so crucial for recovery. There is also a danger that pain can become chronic if the so-called pain cycle is not broken. Once the “reset button” is pressed through guideline-compliant pain therapy, it is possible for joints and nerves to calm down and for the pain to subside without further measures. For these and other reasons, it may be necessary to administer medications—if well-tolerated—either in tablet or infusion form.

Surgical Procedures

If a spinal operation becomes necessary despite comprehensive conservative-symptomatic measures, including injection therapy, or if there is a condition that absolutely requires surgery, we can perform it on an outpatient or inpatient basis, depending on the extent of the procedure, thanks to our years of experience and scientific and practical expertise. You will benefit from the fact that for many years we have focused exclusively on the spine, its special anatomy, and its diseases—from congenital and acquired malformations to inflammatory and degenerative changes, nerve compression from various causes (herniated disc, bony narrowing of the spinal canal, spondylolisthesis), to tumor conditions.

Inpatient Surgeries

Operations that require an inpatient stay can be performed in a nearby hospital. These may include minimally invasive disc surgeries, decompression surgeries to free up constricted nerve canals, insertion of artificial disc prostheses for symptomatic disc disease, cement injections for osteoporotic vertebral fractures, fusion surgeries for spondylolisthesis or other instabilities, for injuries, rheumatic diseases, and tumors, as well as, under certain circumstances, long-segment open and minimally invasive fusion surgeries for the correction of scoliosis and kyphosis.

Having trouble with your back? We are here for you!

Competent and reliable, with modern treatment concepts for back pain that are tailored precisely to you.

Whether conservative, minimally invasive, or surgical – we offer the entire spectrum of therapy for spinal disorders.

A single-source therapy that sees the whole person. With medical knowledge, scientific expertise, surgical skill, and a great deal of empathy. And always with passion.

Types of back pain

Non-specific back pain

The most common cause of pain

From prescribing physical measures and physiotherapy to medication support, from soothing infiltrations of irritated nerve structures to infiltrations or denervations of inflamed facet joints under CT guidance, placed precisely at the source of the problem, up to the most modern surgical procedures—both outpatient and inpatient.

Additionally, psychotherapeutic consultations are possible to shed light on possible psychosomatic causes or amplifiers such as stress and to improve coping with pain and stress.

Throughout the entire therapeutic process, we are available to you as an expert team.

Specific back pain

Structural damage as the cause of pain

In addition to the mostly posture- and age-related non-specific back pain, which can often be treated well with exercises and pain therapy, it is the specific back pain that requires special attention, careful diagnosis, and a well-thought-out therapy. In our practice, we diagnose and treat, in accordance with current scientific recommendations and thanks to the most modern techniques, herniated discs of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, degenerative disc diseases (“wear and tear” of the disc), the so-called post-nucleotomy syndrome, which can arise from scar tissue formation after previous disc surgeries, spinal canal stenoses, slipped vertebrae (“spondylolisthesis”), deformities of the spine (“scoliosis,” “kyphosis”), post-traumatic conditions from previous injuries, rheumatic diseases of the spine, primary and secondary tumors, as well as inflammations of the vertebral bodies (“spondylitis”), the intervertebral discs (“spondylodiscitis”), and abscesses in the spinal canal.

We perform surgery on an outpatient basis; for larger procedures, we operate in a nearby hospital, where the subsequent inpatient stay also takes place. In the case of tumor diseases, we work closely with your treating oncologist, and for inflammatory processes, we also cooperate closely with your local hospital.

Our Services

The entire spectrum of treatment for spinal disorders is our area of expertise. We are also happy to provide a second opinion.

We stand for modern back pain therapy that considers the whole person. With medical knowledge, scientific expertise, surgical skill, and a great deal of empathy. And always with passion.

Comprehensive medical consultation and examination, coordination of diagnostics, diagnosis, creation of a treatment plan; from conservative—with all accompanying measures such as physiotherapy, physical therapy, pain medication, psychotherapy—to minimally invasive measures such as spinal infiltrations under CT guidance, from disc surgery to short- to long-segment fusion surgery for instability or deformity such as scoliosis.

Our Philosophy

Additionally, psychotherapeutic consultations are possible to shed light on possible psychosomatic causes or amplifiers such as stress and to improve coping with pain and stress.

Throughout the entire therapeutic process, we are available to you as an expert team.