Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan — real name Terry Bollea — is suing Laser Spine institute, based in Tampa, Fla., for $50 million according to published reports. The Hulkster's suit says the outpatient spine surgery chain "did unnecessary surgeries that damaged his career," according to Fox News.

The high-profile suit comes in the wake of an in-depth Bloomberg Business Week expose on the issues faced by Laser Spine Institute, which has 4 surgical centers in the United States. "[T]he company is doing surgery that is often unnecessary or inappropriate," contends the article, which further says that "patients have brought 15 malpractice lawsuits since October 2009, a period in which the company performed about 7,500 procedures based on its 2010 estimates" while "nationally, outpatient surgery centers received about six malpractice claims for every 20,000 surgeries."

"Laser Spine Institute acknowledges the filing of the lawsuit," says Laser Spine Institute in a statement. "To protect patient privacy [and] the legal process, we do not discuss the details of litigation matters. By nature, healthcare is a highly regulated industry and a sensitive topic. For these reasons, the existence of litigation — much of which may be frivolous — is not uncommon.

"But, our results and the overwhelming number of satisfied patients tell a truer story. Laser Spine Institute successfully completes more endoscopic spine surgeries each month than any other spine surgery center in the nation and that [sic] 97% of our patients say they would recommend Laser Spine Institute to a friend or family member."

Stephanie Wasek