Is Traditional Spine Surgery Better than Laser Surgery?

Is Traditional Spine Surgery Better than Laser Surgery?

Traditional open spine surgery is very damaging to the patient because of the amount of muscle tissue damage. In order for the surgeon to work with the affected area of the spine a large amount of the patient’s back muscles must be cut. This traumatic procedure leads to many detrimental effects.

The facts about traditional open spine surgery.

1. A six inch incision may be needed to see the affected nerve root and the disc. In creating such a sizeable incision, a large area of muscle has to be cut to make an opening of 2 to 6 inches, leading to substantial blood loss.
2. Use of general anesthesia, which depending on your age and overall health, could lead to a greater risk of complications.
3. Due to the large incision, the length of the stay in the hospital is increased, which is adds to the total cost.
4. The recuperation time after the surgery is much longer, typically several weeks or months.
5. The use of pain medications are necessary after traditional open spine surgery, which not only adds to the cost of the procedure, but also slows the recovery process.
6. Scar tissue formation can lead to additional spine conditions, which could lead more surgical procedures.

Minimally invasive spine surgery, done through an incision that typically measures no larger than the diameter of a penny, can achieve the same results without the muscular trauma that occurs in open-spine surgery. Through the use of highly advanced cameras and fiber optic cables, surgeons are able to view the damaged spinal area while only using a small incision.

The facts about laser spine surgery.

1. Minimally invasive procedures have much faster recovery times, typically within a few hours of the procedure.
2. Less hospitalization time, which means less cost to you.
3. An average procedure time is 45-60 minutes.
4. Once the surgery is over, the patient is monitored for a couple of hours and in many cases released the very same day.
5. The recovery time has been minimized to a matter of days as opposed to months.
6. Minimally invasive procedures only require local anesthesia and a band-aid. Typically no general anesthesia will be required.
7. Minimally invasive surgery leaves very little if any scars on the body since there is only one very small wound, which is at the site of the insertion of the endoscope.

With these bulleted facts about traditional and minimally invasive spine surgery, it’s easy to see that laser spine surgery truly is far superior to traditional open spine surgery. Minimally invasive spine surgery promises decreased recovery time, lessened morbidity, and an overall cost savings to the patient.

Tags: Back Pain Treatment, endoscope, Laser Spine Surgery, Medical Questions, minimally invasive procedure, minimally invasive spine surgery, spine surgery