Our Services / Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

What is minimally invasive spine surgery?

Minimally invasive spine surgery is an approach to performing back and neck operations that has numerous advantages over traditional open surgery.

Minimally invasive surgery techniques use much smaller incisions than open surgery and cause significantly less damage to the muscles around your spine. As a result, you can benefit from:

• Less post-surgical pain
• Lower risk of complications
• Less bleeding
• Reduced infection risk
• Shorter hospital stay
• Less reliance on pain medication
• Faster recovery
• Minimal scarring

Using minimally invasive spine surgery, your provider at Advanced Neurosurgery can treat an extensive range of back and neck disorders.

What conditions can minimally invasive spine surgery treat?

Advanced Neurosurgery's highly skilled surgeons can use minimally invasive spine surgery to treat numerous conditions, including:

• Spinal stenosis
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spinal instability
• Spondylolisthesis (slipped vertebrae)
• Spinal infections
• Herniated discs
• Spinal tumors
• Radiculopathy (pinched nerves)
• Spinal trauma
• Sciatica

Advanced Neurosurgery keeps up to date with the latest developments in minimally invasive spine surgery to ensure patients benefit from the most refined techniques.

What does minimally invasive spine surgery involve?

Minimally invasive spine surgery uses instruments called tubular retractors to access your spine. Your surgeon makes a small incision in the skin and uses the retractor to ease the muscles aside to uncover the spine, avoiding the need to cut through the musculature.

To get a clear view of the surgery site, your surgeon can use either a microscope or an endoscope — a tiny camera on a flexible tube. The magnified, lighted images they see enable them to complete highly complex procedures without needing to view your spine directly.

Once your back or neck surgery is complete, your surgeon removes the retractors, and the muscles go back into position. Absorbable sutures and surgical glue seal the wound in your skin.

What form of minimally invasive spine surgery might I need?

The specific minimally invasive spine surgery you need depends on the reason for your surgery. Procedures the Advanced Neurosurgery surgeons perform using minimally invasive spine surgery techniques include:

• Discectomy
• Spinal decompression (laminectomy and foraminotomy)
• Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF)
• Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF)
• Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF)
• Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF)

Decompression involves removing thickened ligaments and sections of bone to increase the space in your spinal canal.

Discectomy is the removal of a damaged disc, after which you might undergo fusion, where your surgeon joins the vertebrae on either side using a bone graft or inserts an artificial disc.

If you have a back or neck condition that might be a candidate for minimally invasive spine surgery, call Advanced Neurosurgery for more information or book an appointment online today.