Robert L. Masson, M.D.

Masson Spine Institute

Spine surgeon Dr. Robert L. Masson, M.D., is an internationally recognized neurosurgeon specializing in outpatient spine surgery and sports spine medicine. As the founder of the Masson Spine Institute, he serves as Director of the Orlando Health Central Hospital JCAHO accredited Spine Center of Excellence, where patients and surgeons travel from all over the world for advanced micro-surgical spine surgery strategies, solutions, techniques and training.

Dr. Masson, himself a spinal reconstruction patient and lifelong adventurer and athlete, is a passionate advocate for prevention, wellness, fitness and ultimately extreme recovery in the face of spinal injury.  He is committed to using the a comprehensive multi-modality approach to help his patients achieve return to spine health following their spinal treatment.  His goal is to relentlessly strive for optimization strategies to improve patient outcome and functionality, even in the face of previously disabling spinal conditions.

Dr. Masson has performed over 13,000 microsurgical spine procedures in his career and several thousand microsurgical minimally invasive lumbar spinal reconstructions and revisions. He is amongst the most experienced artificial disc surgeons in North America having over 2000 patients treated with cervical arthroplasty.  His practice is dedicated to disc disorders and spondylolisthesis and 100% of his practice uses microsurgical and minimally invasive techniques.

Dr. Masson received his medical degree with honors from the University of Florida. He stayed in Gainesville for Neurological Surgery Residency, finishing in 1995 with special training in microneurosurgery and minimally invasive spine surgery. He credits his training and inspiration in microsurgery to Dr. Albert Rhoton, the ‘father’ of modern microneurosurgery.

After starting his practice in 1995, he began applying brain microsurgery techniques to spinal surgery with total commitment to less traumatic spine surgery solutions. The advances he made resulted in the least invasive lumbar spine reconstruction technique in the world, the iMAS Procedure™ which he invented.  This enabled the creation of spinal implants, retractors, templates, delivery devices, techniques, and technology

Dr. Masson’s iMAS technique—which is short for ‘intervertebral microsurgical access surgery”—is used in lumbosacral spinal reconstruction and he has been responsible for the education, product development, and research for iMAS Technology products and techniques. He has served as one of several Chairmen, globally, for surgeon training and certification for in the use of the artificial disc, Prodisc and is a Principal Investigator in the 2020 Prodisc C two level FDA clinical trial.

He has trained several hundred surgeons in minimally invasive spine surgery, iMAS and cervical arthroplasty and is credited with having the least invasive spine reconstruction technique in the world.

His practice is world renowned for its functionally restoring treatment goals in the face of spinal disorders.  Dr. Masson has treated  a variety of amateur, recreational, professional athletes, and Olympians. This includes athletes from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, ATP, PGA/LPGA tours, US Soccer, UFC, US Boxing, US Ski team, US Cycling and US Track teams, and he is an expert consultant at Spine Health as it relates to sports and the fitness industry at large.