Our Services / Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

What is minimally invasive spine surgery?

Minimally invasive spine surgery is an alternative to open surgery. Traditional open surgery uses large incisions that increase the risk of spinal damage and complications. Minimally invasive spine surgery uses techniques that avoid the need for large incisions through the muscles.

Instead, the Jackson Neurosurgery Clinic team uses an endoscope (a tiny camera on a flexible tube) and specialized instruments to access your spine. This muscle-sparing approach causes significantly less pain after surgery. You also have less bleeding, scarring, and the risk of infection is lower. You should also make a faster recovery.

Minimally invasive spine surgery requires moderate sedation rather than a general anesthetic, so it’s less risky than open surgery. It’s also an excellent choice for patients at high risk because of other health problems.

For most Jackson Neurosurgery Clinic patients, minimally invasive spine surgery is an outpatient procedure. Only around 10% of practices offer outpatient minimally invasive spine surgery.

What can minimally invasive spine surgery treat?

Minimally invasive spine surgery is an effective solution for patients with back pain caused by:

• Sciatica
• Arthritis
• Spinal stenosis
• Disc herniations
• Facet arthropathy

You might be a suitable candidate for minimally invasive spine surgery if you’ve tried nonsurgical treatments with little success. Your age, weight, and lifestyle are important concerns in determining if minimally invasive spine surgery is a good choice.

What happens during minimally invasive spine surgery?

Before your surgery, the Jackson Neurosurgery Clinic team gives you a local anesthetic to numb the surgical site. Your surgeon makes a small quarter-inch incision in your back and inserts a guided wire to find the spinal canal.

Next, they place dilating tubes over the wire that spread the surrounding muscles apart. Your surgeon positions a final tube, the retractor, then removes the wire and dilating tubes. Using an endoscope, your surgeon views the internal structure of your spine on a monitor.

After completing your minimally invasive spine surgery, your surgeon removes the retractor and puts a small sterile strip over the incision. You stay for observation while the anesthetic and sedative wear off. Then you go home. Most patients resume their routine about a week after surgery.

Minimally invasive spine surgery requires an exceptional degree of skill to complete successfully. Jackson Neurosurgery Clinic’s board-certified surgeons have years of experience and training to ensure that their patients receive the best care.

Call the office today or book an appointment online to determine if minimally invasive spine surgery is right for you.