What Is Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery?
Surgical procedures involving the spine traditionally involve open surgery. During open surgery, the doctor uses a long tear to see and get to the target area. These traditional ways cause injury not only to the cut tissue but also to the pulled-back muscle. Other injury means other complications and a longer recovery time. Therefore, medical professionals developed minimally invasive surgery to reduce the harmful effects of surgical procedures.
Doctors can use minimally invasive procedures to resolve the same issues as traditional surgery. Normally, a physician will recommend surgery when nonsurgical remedies don’t relieve pain effectively. Now that we’ve minimally invasive methods, we can further reduce the potential injury caused when we must choose surgery. However, they can conduct minimally invasive surgery instead of traditional procedures, if your doctor can find the exact location of your pain.
- Techniques Used in Minimally Invasive Surgery
Minimally invasive spine involves many different approaches that depend on the doctor’s techniques and the patient’s diagnosis. In general, these approaches use smaller incisions and specialized tools.
Most procedures use tubular retractors fitted into small incisions. These instruments create a subway to the affected area of the body and separate muscles instead of cutting them. The surgeon either uses small tools that fit through the tubular retractor, so only the tissue and bone at the end of the tube get treated. However, they can simply make another small incision and fit another tubular retractor, if multiple parts of the body need surgery. Once the surgeon closes, they can remove the tubular retractor to let the muscles move back to their original position.
To see the inside of the patient’s body, the surgeon uses fluoroscopy. Fluoroscopy uses X-ray technology to create a real-time videotape showing the projected area. Since back problems can happen on a really small scale, a microscope can help the surgeon look at the affected area in detail. The surgeon doesn’t get to see what they operate on directly, but they also don’t have to make a large incision.
- About Least-Invasive Surgery
Least-invasive surgery approaches all fall under the kind of minimally invasive procedures. So what’s the difference? As their name implies, the least-invasive surgery methods use the least invasive methods presently possible. Minimally invasive surgical methods require technical training and equipment, but the least-invasive approaches need the most specialized knowledge and tools out there. Least-invasive surgical methods greatly enhance the benefits of minimally invasive surgery, putting it into a kind of its own.
At Sahyadri Hospital Pune, our Spine Specialist in Pune has entered far-reaching training that gives them the moxie to use these innovative recipes. We go to these lengths to guaranty our cases have the topmost relief and shortest recovery times possible. With lower pain and idle time, our cases can get back to their lives fleetly than ever.
- Least-Invasive Surgery Strategies
To make the minimal impact possible on our patients’ bodies, we use endoscopic spine procedures. During these surgeries, we can use the minimal rips and tubular retractors out there thanks to a specialized camera. While some minimally invasive surgeries demand a tubular retractor that can still result in excess recovery time, endoscopic spine procedures use a compact one. Our microscopic HD camera fits right into this small hole, so we don’t need a big tubular retractor or a longer incision.
We deliver four different types of endoscopic procedures:
- Transforaminal endoscopic discectomy Removing a painful herniated disc doesn’t have to demand a large opening. During this operation, we remove it through the tubular retractor. To assure the area heals correctly, we use a high-tech laser that shrinks and closes the tears left behind by the disposal. The patient can recover within some weeks.
- Endoscopic foraminoplasty When extra tissue or bone presses on your nerve or spinal cord, a foraminoplasty can remove that pressure. Traditional surgery forces the patient to recover for 12 months. Meanwhile, our endoscopic approach lets patients recover incredibly fast. In fact, some of them can begin post-operative physical therapy the same day they undergo the procedure.
- Endoscopic laminectomy If a narrowed spinal canal is putting pressure on the nerves and conservative treatment has failed to relieve the pain, an endoscopic laminectomy might be performed. In this procedure, a surgeon creates incisions above and below the spinal disk to relieve pressure. The surgeon can also address herniated disks, bone spurs, and other issues at the same time.
- Endoscopic rhizotomy aggravated nerves near the spine’s facet joints generate chronic lower back pain and discomfort. Sometimes a doctor needs to disable those nerves to offer the patient pain relief. While traditional rhizotomies use needles inserted in multiple places, the endoscopic approach has only one point of entry. The pain relief lasts for years after the procedure.
Endoscopic Spine Procedures the Logical Choice
Minimally invasive surgical procedures may try to reduce injury and recovery time, but they can still result in discomfort and inconvenience. Cutting-edge endoscopic approaches like the ones we use at Sahyadri Hospital Pune make the entire process easier for the case. The choice is clear — only the least-invasive options will do.
Pain management needs a holistic result that considers all aspects of pain. Whether or not you need surgery, a doctor at Sahyadri Hospital Pune can rate your symptoms and recommend the least invasive course of action. List an appointment now.
Dr. Sachin Mahajan is a highly acclaimed neurosurgeon working as a Senior Consultant and Head of spine services at Sahyadri Hospital Pune. His areas of special interest are Minimally Invasive and Advanced Spine Surgery. Dr. Sachin Mahajan has done specialization and he is an experienced spine surgeon in minimal invasive spine surgery in Pune. he has done a clinical fellowship in Minimally invasive and advanced spine surgery from Canada. He has done a number of minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) at Sahyadri hospital Pune and his success rate is more than 90%.
