When most people hear the words spine surgery they imagine large, painful scars and long recovery times. Here at AOK Spine and Pain, our team specializes in minimally invasive surgical techniques. First performed in the 1980’s, minimally invasive spine surgery (MIS) has recently seen swift advances and incurred multiple benefits.
Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Benefits
- Smaller incisions
- Smaller scars/less scar tissue
- Less pain
- Reduced blood loss
- Reduced muscle retraction and soft tissue damage
- Decreased post-operative narcotics
- Possibility of being performed on an outpatient basis
- Shorter hospital stays
- Faster recovery times
- Quicker return to work and other daily activities
As with all non-emergency spinal surgeries we recommend our patients undergo an appropriate period of conservative treatment, such as physical therapy, pain medication, or bracing, before considering minimally invasive spine surgery. Although a large volume of our patients report substantial pain and symptom relief, there is no guarantee that surgery will help every patient. A few of our surgical treatment options include, but are not limited to the following.
Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures
- Anterior cervical corpectomy
- Artificial cervical total disc replacement
- Cervical laminoplasty
- Kyphoplasty
- Scoliosis correction
- Spinal cord stimulator/Neuro modulators
- ALIF: Anterior lumbar Interbody Fusion
- Lumbar Disc Microsurgery
- Lumbar Micro-decompression
- Laminectomy
Many of these procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis at our on -site out-patient surgical center, Houston Surgery Center. Some cases may require a hospital stay for observation, typically less than 24 hours to 2 days, depending on the procedure.