Kevin Pauza is an American physiatrist and interventional spine specialist. He is the co-founder of the Texas Spine and Joint Hospital located in Tyler, Texas. Pauza developed the Discseel procedure for the treatment of spinal disorders known as the Pauza Disc Treatment, which claims to repair re-grow discs without a spinal fusion. Pauza's work has been featured on national news outlets and used to treat many international clients, including royal families, for chronic back pain and spinal disc degeneration.
Early life
Kevin Pauza was born on December 15, 1964, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with twin sister Jill Ann Pauza. He and his three siblings grew up on his parents’ farm. His mother, Gail Ann Pauza, was a registered nurse, and his father, William Vito Pauza, is a farmer, land conservationist, and inventor.
Pauza developed the Pauza Disc Treatment and Biostat System, a minimally invasive procedure that repairs and re-grows discs for the treatment of spinal pain and disorders including degenerative disc disease. Pauza holds a series of 16 patents for a device and Discseel biologic that support the treatment. The procedure involves injecting two components of blood plasma, thrombin and fibrinogen, which combine to make fibrin, into damaged spinal discs for the treatment of spinal conditions such as degenerative disc disease, back pain and chronic low back pain, or internal disc disruption. The Biostat intradiscal fibrin sealant underwent multiple Food and Drug Administration studies to become an FDA approved Discseel biologic that reduces back pain and regrows degenerated spinal discs. On July 18, 2013, it was announced the results of its Phase III Investigational New Drug study had not met its success criteria, and injections of the Fibrin Sealant were not statistically significantly better than saline injections. The procedure is being challenged by Christopher J. Centeno creator of the Regenexx Stem Cell Spinal Procedure. Centeno suggested that the research and data provided by Pauza is flawed and as of 2016, no real or medically relevant data has been provided to prove the cement biologic fibrin offered in the Discseel Procedure works or helps patients suffering from back and neck pain. Pauza served on the advisory board of several medical tech companies. He served as medical advisor overseas for royal families to which he provided treatment. In 2013 Pauza was reprimanded by and entered into a disciplinary agreement with the Texas StateMedical Board. The Medical Board found that Pauza failed to meet expected standards of care, failed to follow the board's guidelines for the treatment of pain, failed to keep adequate medical records and failed to cooperate with board staff. Two years later the Board extended the order, after it "found Dr. Pauza’s medical records for the patient at issue were inadequate and that Dr. Pauza’s stated rationale for prescribing a medication as a sleep aid and for treating the patient with corticosteroid injections after a five-year treatment hiatus were inadequate." In 2018 he was reprimanded again for failing to document his rationale behind a diagnosis of lumbar disc pain and lumbar radiculopathy, and for failing to document either that he had considered simpler and less invasive treatment options for the patient than the procedure he performed, or that his patient had chosen to forego conventional treatment. In both incidents he was required to take remedial education in risk management and related subjects.
