Minimally invasive spine surgeries are here to help you get back to your old self. Is MISS treatment the best way forward without your old aches and pains?
Spine surgery is off-putting, and it is no surprise. The traditional spine surgery methods are invasive, upsetting, and leave you with a lengthy recovery time. As well as giving you soft tissue damage, open back surgeries are painful, exhausting, and leave you incapacitated. Instead, we urge you to consider minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). A minimally invasive laminectomy surgery could see you with a shorter hospital stay and less scarring. Could a minimally invasive surgery option be the solution to the back pain you have been searching for?
What is a Laminectomy?
Also called a discectomy, a laminectomy is when you have a part of your spine removed for your own wellbeing. Things like bone spurs and arthritis can change the bones of your spine, causing pain and leaving the need for surgery. Traditionally, Laminectomy would require open back surgery. Open back or traditional spinal surgery sees the patient taken to the hospital and treated by an anesthetist. Once suitably comatose, the patient flips onto their front to provide access to the back. The surgeon makes a cut into the back, exposing the damaged vertebrae. They can then treat you accordingly, usually by removing painful areas of bone and growths on the spine.
A minimally invasive laminectomy surgery does the same job, leaving you pain-free in a shorter time. Minimally invasive surgeries are only possible thanks to advances in modern medicine. Up until very recently, back surgeries required an open back before they could operate.
What is a Minimally Invasive Laminectomy?
With a minimally invasive laminectomy, you can leave the hospital on the same day as your surgery. The surgeon will cut smaller incisions into your back, which means less bleeding, less scarring, and less risk of infection. The surgeon uses smaller tools to perform the procedure, leaving you relieved of your symptoms without the soft tissue damage or the lengthy recovery times that come with traditional open-back laminectomy procedures.
Many patients prefer the minimally invasive version of the laminectomy because there is less pain associated with it. You do not have to stay off work for long periods, and you still get the relief you deserve.
When Should You Get A MISS Laminectomy/Discectomy?
MISS cannot treat all the conditions a traditional surgery can. However, opting for a less invasive surgery method is better whenever it is possible. The following are some conditions that can be cured by MISS:
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- Lumbar Herniated Disc
- Lumbar Synovial Cyst
- Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
As to when you should opt for a minimally invasive Laminectomy procedure, we leave this to the advice of your doctor. See a specialist if your spine is giving you unknown pains. To recognize when the right time for surgery is, your spine specialist will try all other forms of treatment first. This eliminates things like medications and physical therapy treatments. A laminectomy may be the only way to treat the bone spurs on your spine, but the surgeon will only perform the procedure if your medical practitioner has ruled out all other options. Even MISS treatments come with the risks posed by surgeries everywhere. Unless you need it, your healthcare provider will not expose you to it.
