Spine Surgery Specialist

What is spine surgery?

Spine surgery is a treatment option for patients who have persistent and severe back or neck pain.

Treatment plans for most causes of back or neck pain start with noninvasive approaches, like rest and gentle exercise, physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation, and medication.

If these aren't sufficient, stem cell therapy can help heal the damaged tissues. You might also require epidural injections containing a steroid to reduce inflammation and a local anesthetic to numb the pain.

At this point, most patients find that their symptoms resolve or become manageable. If not, you might benefit from advanced back pain treatments, like radiofrequency ablation or spinal cord stimulation. Your doctor can perform either of these, as well as injections, in the comfort of the Neurosurgical Solutions facility.

If you're still suffering despite these measures, Neurosurgical Solutions has fully-equipped facilities for your doctor to perform spine surgery.

What is minimally invasive spine surgery?

Minimally invasive spine surgery is a method of accessing your spine without needing to make a large incision. Traditionally, it was necessary to make large cuts so the surgeon could see and access your spine. Modern technologies mean this is no longer necessary.

Minimally invasive spine surgery is the leading approach to performing procedures such as:

• Spinal fusion
• Discectomy
• Microdiscectomy
• Artificial disc implantation
• Facetectomy 
• Foraminotomy 
• Laminectomy
• Laminotomy
• Partial vertebra elimination

There are considerable advantages to minimally invasive spinal surgery. These advantages include less pain, a lower risk of infection, reduced blood loss, a shorter hospital stay, minimal scarring, less downtime, and faster healing. 

How is minimally invasive spine surgery performed?

Minimally invasive spine surgery is possible because Dr. Bishop uses advanced instruments that fit through an incision that’s typically an inch long (or less). The team positions your body on the table depending on whether the incision will go in front, to the side, or from the back of your spine.

For the next step, Dr. Bishop guides a round retractor through the muscles and other tissues, eliminating the need to cut them. The small incision combined with this tissue-sparing technique are the reasons you have less bleeding and can recover more quickly.

Dr. Bishop performs your surgery by inserting an endoscope through the opening. The scope sends a magnified image of your spine to a monitor. Then he inserts instruments through the scope and manipulates them from outside your body while viewing the monitor.

To find out more about minimally invasive spine surgery at Neurosurgical Solutions, call the office or book an appointment online today.