If conservative back treatment options fail, you may find yourself in need of spine surgery. Doctors should focus on reducing tissue damage, trauma, and pain after surgery. This is important when selecting the best spine surgery for a patient.

There have been great strides in surgical treatment of the spine over the years. Endoscopic Spine Surgery is the best current example of how far surgical medicine has come.

What is Endoscopic Spine Surgery?

Endoscopic Spine Surgery is an advanced form of minimally invasive spine surgery that is designed to offer quicker recovery times and less recurring pain than traditional spine surgery. This procedure uses small cuts, less than 1 inch, and tiny tubes with an endoscope to see the surgical area. In many cases, Endoscopic Spine Surgery can lower the overall health risks of surgery by using local anesthesia versus general anesthesia.

Who can benefit from Endoscopic Spine Surgery?

Minimally invasive spine surgery can be a good choice for patients who need specific types of surgery, such as cervical or lumbar fusion. Minimally invasive surgery uses a smaller cut. This helps save more soft tissue around the treated area.  This usually also results in faster healing and less pain for the patient.

The prevalence of adjacent segment degeneration, a post-surgical condition where the level immediately above or below a repaired area may be weakened, is also lessened with minimally invasive surgery. Open spine surgery incisions are usually 5-6 inches long, but minimally invasive surgery may be performed with only a fraction of such an incision being necessary.

What are the potential outcomes of Endoscopic Spine Surgery?

Surgeons achieve significantly improved outcomes for surgery in the outpatient setting compared to inpatient, long-incision spine surgery. Instead of an average hospital stay of five days, a patient may only spend a few hours in the outpatient center before returning home. The duration of surgery is cut in half, which also greatly reduces the risk of infection or the necessity of a blood transfusion. Patients typically walk on the day of their surgery (as soon as they are awake, and their anesthesia has worn off) and report less pain when walking. Spine patients who undergo surgery at Campbell Surgery Center have never had an infection to date and experience roughly only one-third of the blood loss of spine patients in the hospital setting.

Campbell Clinic surgeons work every day to diagnose and treat a full range of spine conditions. Our team includes board-certified spine care doctors and highly trained physical therapists. They have the experience and expertise needed to provide a wide range of orthopedic care, pain management, and treatment options for your injury.

To make an appointment with a spine doctor near you, visit one of Campbell Clinic‘s nine locations.

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