Minimally Invasive Surgery

The term “minimally invasive surgery” is very trendy lately, but what exactly is it? Can it be done for spine problems? If you need surgery, is it the right type of surgery for you?

Minimally invasive spine surgery, also called “minimal access spine surgery”, refers to a growing number of surgical procedures which achieve the same surgical result as traditional operations on the spine, but are performed with much smaller incisions and little or no cutting of muscle. In other words, we can now get the job done on the “inside” without having to tear apart the “outside” to get there. This is done with newly developed “tubular” retractors, and the aid of “endoscopes” (small cameras), which allow the surgeon to see deep inside the spine without removing all the muscle that covers it. These procedures can now be done on the neck, mid back, and low back for a wide variety of common problems.

This type of surgery offers many benefits to patients. First, our data clearly show that patients lose less blood during surgery, have less pain after surgery, take less pain medicine after surgery, and have shorter hospitalizations following surgery (many procedures can be done as outpatients). Patients recover faster and get back to their normal lives faster, and all these factors contribute to decreasing the overall cost of the surgical procedure. We believe that these factors will also result in fewer post-operative infections, fewer complications, and better long-term results.

If you would like more information about CINN’s Institute for Spine Care, please call 1-800-560-2225 (BACK).