Whether your back and neck pain hasn’t improved with non-surgical treatments or a doctor has already recommended spine surgery, you owe it to yourself to learn about minimally invasive surgery. The board-certified spine surgeons at Illinois Spine and Scoliosis Center specialize in easing pain and restoring your spine health with minimally invasive techniques. To learn if you're a good candidate for surgery that causes less pain, often lets you go home the same day, and promotes faster recovery, call the office in Homer Glen or Woodridge, Illinois, or request an appointment online today.
Minimally invasive surgery differs from open surgery in two important ways:
Your provider at Illinois Spine and Scoliosis Center makes a small incision when performing minimally invasive spine surgery. In some cases, the incision only needs to accommodate instruments the size of a pencil. Even when you need a larger incision, it's still significantly smaller than open surgery.
You can have minimally invasive spine surgery thanks to advanced minimal access spinal technologies (MAST). MAST includes a wide range of specialized surgical instruments (designed to fit through tiny incisions), as well as devices like endoscopes.
Endoscopes, which are about the width of a pencil, contain fiber-optic video cameras and lighting. The scope gives your provider an enhanced view of the surgical site without requiring a big incision.
Your provider doesn’t cut through muscles and other supporting tissues. Instead, they either push them aside or use a tubular dilator. They guide the dilator between muscle fibers and gently separate them.
By comparison, surgeons performing open surgery cut through all the tissues. Then they retract (pull back) the tissues so their hands can reach your spine.
Since minimally invasive spine surgery causes less tissue damage, it offers benefits you can't get with open surgery, such as:
Another great advantage is that your provider often performs minimally invasive spine surgery on an outpatient basis.
Most spine conditions that once required open surgery can now use minimally invasive techniques. They include:
Though most people can have minimally invasive surgery, some people may have an underlying condition that requires open surgery.
Illinois Spine and Scoliosis Center has extensive experience performing minimally invasive surgeries, including:
To learn more about the benefits of minimally invasive surgery, call Illinois Spine and Scoliosis Center or book an appointment online today.
