Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
Traditionally, spinal surgery has involved large incisions down the middle of the back and the spreading (retracting) of the back muscles to gain access to the spine. This is referred to as “open” spine surgery. Open techniques provide the surgeon with easy access to the spinal anatomy. The downside of “open” spine surgery is that the muscle retraction damages the spinal muscles and can cause significant post-operative pain. In addition, “open” surgery can result in increased blood loss, larger scars and relatively long recovery times.
In many situations “open” techniques are still preferred, but recently, more and more conditions are being surgically treated using new techniques called minimally invasive spine surgery.
Minimally invasive spine surgery allows the surgeon to make smaller incisions in the skin and avoid large muscle retraction. The surgeon uses a microscope, small instruments, and tubular retractors to perform the surgical procedure.
Advantages of Minimally Invasive Techniques
Minimally invasive spine surgery results in the same surgical outcome as with more traditional, open techniques. However, there are a number of advantages to minimally invasive techniques, including:
- Reduced operative times
- Less soft tissue damage
- Smaller incisions
- Reduced blood loss
- Faster recovery with less post-operative pain
- Shorter, and sometimes no hospital stay
Conditions that can be treated with Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
- Herniated discs in the back and neck
- Cervical stenosis
- Lumbar stenosis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Spondylolisthesis
At Florida Spine Specialists, our priority is providing the best care for our patients; we don’t practice a “one size fits all” approach. For this reason, we offer a variety of minimally invasive techniques that have been scientifically proven, but we avoid others that remain unproven. In addition, we realize that minimally invasive surgery is not right for every patient’s situation, and we customize our approach to each individual’s needs. The minimally invasive techniques we offer include:
- Microdiscectomy
- Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF)
- Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody
- Fusion (TLIF)
- Interspinous Lumbar Fusion (ILIF)
- Percutaneous Pedicle screws
- Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty
- Anterior Cervical Discectomy and
- Fusion (ACDF)
- Laminoplasty
- Foraminotomy
