Why Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Might Be the Best Option for You

While surgery may not be anyone’s preferred treatment, if you’re plagued by back problems that are having a detrimental impact on your quality of life, surgery may be your best course of action. In an effort to make the road to relief a little smoother, minimally invasive surgical techniques have allowed surgeons to do their work without the collateral impact that comes with traditional open techniques.

At South Texas Spinal Clinic, our surgeons believe that the surgical cure for a number of back issues shouldn’t come at a high cost. We understand that our patients are looking for relief from chronic pain, as well as restoration of movement, which is why we use state-of-the-art equipment that leaves a much smaller footprint.

The benefits of less invasive surgical techniques are many. Our team is here to help you understand why minimally invasive spine surgery may be your best option.

A shared goal

The first thing you should know about minimally invasive spinal surgery is that our goal is to achieve the same outcome that an open surgery provides but with an approach that’s less disruptive for your body.

In open surgery, the surgeon cuts through your soft tissue and connective tissue (namely, your muscles) to gain access to the surgical site. Once your surgical team has a clear path to your problem, for both their eyes and their hands, they make the necessary corrections and stitch your tissue back up.

Thanks to modern technology, our surgeons utilize small, specialized tools that need a fraction of the space compared to open procedures. The key to the minimally invasive technique is an endoscope, which is a small tool equipped with a camera and a light. This tiny camera feeds live, 3D video of your internal surgical site to a monitor, allowing the doctor to fully visualize the inside of your spine.

Using tiny tools, which they thread through small incisions, our doctors can perform the necessary surgery to resolve your medical condition. This perfect blend of human expertise and technological advancement gives you the peace of mind that your outcome will be as successful as traditional techniques.

A smoother road

While we accomplish the same thing that open surgeries can, the advantages of using minimally invasive techniques are myriad. To start, you experience less pain and your healing process and recovery is faster.  And because of the small incisions, there’s less risk of bleeding, infection, and scarring.

You’ve likely been dealing with a fair bit of pain, which is what brought you to your surgical decision. So we’ll do our part, whenever possible, to minimize the aftermath of the surgery.

Relieving pressure

Our surgeons largely use minimally invasive surgical techniques to relieve nerve pressure within your spine. Some examples of this are:

• Anterior cervical fusion for a ruptured disc in your neck: We make a small incision in the front of your neck, remove the ruptured disc, and replace it with a piece of bone to fuse the two vertebrae
• Anterior cervical discectomy: We remove only a piece of the problematic disc in your neck
• Lumbar microdiscectomy: We remove a small portion of a disc in your lower back to relieve nerve pressure
• Lumbar laminectomy: We remove a portion of your lamina to access, and correct, the source of your nerve compression

The bottom line is that your relief is our primary goal, and we try and get you there more easily through minimally invasive spinal surgery. If you’d like to explore your surgical options, please give us a call or use the online scheduling tool to book an appointment.