Spinal surgery is a conventionally open surgery in which a doctor opens the surgical site using long incisions to access and view your anatomy. Nevertheless, technological advancements allow surgeons to treat neck and back health conditions with Michigan minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). MISS achieves the same outcome as the traditional surgical treatment but via a smaller incision. This avoids substantial damage to the muscles surrounding your spine, less pain during the treatment, and a quicker recovery. Since operating via a tinier opening is challenging, you need a skilled surgeon like LAMIS. Our surgeons can review your health condition to determine the best treatment option. We can also help you make the best health decision.
How Michigan Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Works
Since your spinal discs, vertebrae, and nerves are deep in your body, accessing the spine requires the surgeon to move the muscles aside from the affected area. A tiny incision, a microscopic camera, and guiding tools facilitate the process. Physicians rarely use lasers in minimally invasive procedures.
Doctors use different methods to reduce trauma during the surgery, including the following:
A Tubular Retractor
The method involves dilating soft tissues instead of cutting via muscles directly. The surgeon uses tubes to keep the muscles out of the way, allowing them to work via the surgical incision without exposing the surgical site widely.
Sometimes, the surgeon can use a microscope or endoscope to assist them in performing the process through a minimal access strategy.
After the procedure, they will remove the tubular retractor, permitting your dilated tissues to return to their initial place.
Thoracoscopic Access Route
Depending on your health condition, your doctor can choose to access the front areas of your thoracic spine. Conventional spine surgery involves opening your chest via huge incisions that might also require the removal of at least one rib. On the contrary, the thoracoscopic access approach uses many tiny incisions through which the surgeon can insert cameras and working ports.
Direct Lateral Access Route
Sometimes, surgery with the patient on their side can reduce pain since fewer muscles are blocking the way. The approach is ideal if it involves your lumbar spine.
Your healthcare expert will insert a tubular retractor on your spine’s side to facilitate access to your spinal bones and discs.
Placing Screws and Rods Percutaneously
Depending on your condition, it can be crucial to place screws and rods to immobilize your spine to enable spinal bone fusion or stabilize your spine.
Unlike traditional surgery, that involves substantial removal of spinal tissues and muscles, percutaneous placement entails inserting screws and rods via tiny incisions without dissecting or cutting your underlying muscles.
Using X-ray images, the surgeon places guidewires through your skin and into your spinal vertebrae along the screws’ desired path. The screws have extenders that extend outside of your skin, and surgeons remove them later after using them to guide rods’ passage to secure and connect the screws.
Your doctor will use spinal robots and navigation to place the equipment more accurately and safely.
How to Know Whether You Need a MISS
Some crucial signs that indicate it is time to consult your doctor for medical guidance and treatment can include the following:
- Numbness, weakness, and tingling — Tingling, numbness, or weakness felt in locations like the legs and arms are primarily due to compressed nerves in our spine. Nerves may become compressed because of various factors, including a herniated disc or bone spurs.
- Persistent and progressive pain — You should consult a Michigan minimally invasive spinal surgery professional if you have suffered from lingering pain in your back for days or months or pain that seems to increase.
- Degenerative spinal condition — Pain in your back due to degenerative conditions, like spinal arthritis or spinal stenosis, might manifest as spinal instability or spinal deformity following imaging examinations.
- Bowel or bladder issues — In some cases, bowel or bladder conditions can be caused by back pain due to pressure on the nerves supplying function to the bowel and bladder.
- Reduced quality of life — Pain and mobility issues can greatly affect your daily functions and overall lifestyle.
When you visit your qualified doctor with extremity symptoms, they will first recommend that a primary care physician evaluate you. They will watch you for some time and encourage you to maintain stable physical activity. If the condition does not resolve with physical exercise, you should see your doctor next for an evaluation.
Most spinal conditions are treatable non-surgically. Your physician should recommend anti-inflammatory medication, pain management drugs, and physical activity before considering surgery. If these conventional treatment options do not resolve the condition, then surgery is an effective alternative.
Some of the conditions treatable by MISS include the following:
- Spinal tumors
- Vertebral compression fracture
- Spinal instability like spondylolisthesis
- Spinal infections
- Scoliosis
- Herniated disc
- Degenerative disc disease
You can also qualify for Michigan minimally invasive spine surgery if you are:
- Experiencing pain that significantly affects your daily life
- Among those conservative treatment options have failed
- In good overall health
- At a healthy weight
The procedure is also ideal for elderly patients who might not be eligible for an open surgical procedure. This is because these patients are not required to recover in bed for long and should be free to move about for short periods.
Obese patients might also benefit from the procedure. An operation that involves a long incision into a considerable amount of subcutaneous tissues can result in challenges like infections.
Are There Instances When MISS is Not Ideal?
Every health condition is unique, and so is each patient.
Sometimes, the surgeon might need to make a large incision to expose structures and tissues that they should operate on directly.
In other cases, your surgeon might plan a MISS but decide to switch to a traditional surgery for better visualization of the surgical site. It varies by specialty. Therefore, speaking with your surgeon about the options is wise.
Benefits and Risks of Miss
Some of the advantages of the procedure include the following:
- Less pain —Minimally invasive treatment causes less post-op discomfort and pain. That means you will require smaller doses of painkillers than an individual undergoing open surgery.
- Less scarring —Scars resulting from MISS have less jagged edges; which means tinier and less noticeable scars.
- Since your surgeon does not have to cut through your muscles to complete the procedure, there is minimal tissue and muscle damage and faster recovery.
- Higher accuracy rate — Since the procedure uses video-assisted tools, your doctor has improved magnification and visualization of your internal structure and organs. That results in a more definitive and accurate procedure.
Please note that Michigan minimally invasive spine surgery is a surgical procedure with fewer risks. These complications include the following:
- Blood clots — One uncommon complication following the procedure is the formation of blood clots in your legs. The clots can pose a threat if they travel to your lungs.
- Nerve damage
- Pain at your surgical site
- Bleeding
- Pseudarthrosis — It is a health condition in which there is inadequate bone formation, causing spinal fusion not to heal accurately. If this happens, you might require another surgery. The complication is common among smokers.
Numerous Types of Spinal Surgery
Minimally invasive spinal surgeons utilize different techniques to relieve nerve pain related to spinal stenosis, sciatica, and degenerative conditions. These types include the following:
Spinal Decompression
Spinal decompression procedures include:
- Laminectomy — Your MISS surgeon will make a tiny incision before using a high-speed drill to extract some portion of the lamina. The lamina is the bony roof of the vertebra. The procedure opens the spinal column to alleviate nerve decompression.
- Microdiscectomy — By making a tiny incision, which is less than an inch, your MISS surgeon will use a specialized microscope and surgical tools to extract a portion of the damaged disc.
Spinal Fusion
Spinal fusion is a procedure that permanently merges at least two (2) spinal vertebrae. Vertebrae are the tiny, interlocking bones of your spine. A treatment occurs after making a smaller incision than a conventional spinal fusion surgery would.
During spinal fusion, doctors use extra bones to fill the space usually found between the two separate vertebrae. When your bone heals, there will be no space between them.
Stabilization back surgery offers strength and stability, eliminating motion and back pain.
Corpectomy Surgery
A corpectomy involves the removal of your vertebrae, aiming to reduce pressure on nerves and your spinal cord.
The surgeon will extract the discs below and above your affected vertebra and the middle section of the bones. Finally, they will insert a metal prosthesis or bone graft to stabilize your spine.
Tumor Resection
Tumor resection is also called tumor removal or tumor excision. It is a surgical procedure commonly performed on cancer patients. Your surgeon will carefully remove the tumor, along with some healthy tissue surrounding it.
Since tumor removal usually requires a slightly larger incision than a biopsy, newer MISS techniques that involve robotics or laparoscopy offer many benefits to cancer patients with spine tumors.
Kyphoplasty Treatment
Kyphoplasty is a procedure utilized to treat a compression fracture in your spine. A compression fracture happens when a section of the vertebra collapses because of issues like cancer, injury, osteoporosis, or thinning of your bones.
The surgeon administers general or local anesthesia in this MISS procedure by placing a needle via your skin into the vertebra. They will then insert a balloon via the needle into your bone before inflating it. The balloon will restore your vertebra to its initial shape. Finally, your doctor will inject bone cement into the space to offer stability and prevent your bones from collapsing.
Things to Do In the Lead-Up to Your MISS
Most spinal surgical procedures are scheduled weeks or even months beforehand. Since you will have time before the procedure, you should maximize this duration. You are encouraged to be proactive before the surgery because it increases the procedure’s success rate. The section below discusses some of the things you could do.
- Weight loss and exercise — The healthier you are before the surgery, the healthier you will be after the procedure. Therefore, do not wait until your treatment to exercise or eat a balanced diet. Losing weight promotes recovery; the spine disperses your weight’s stress.
- Be informed — Ensure you learn about aspects like your health condition, the surgical procedure, and the recovery process. Understanding more before the treatment prevents running into surprises in the future. In case of any questions or concerns, this is the ideal time to contact your Michigan minimally invasive spine surgery specialist.
- Have goals — It is more effective for patients to maintain the right mindset while in recovery as it helps achieve their goals in physical therapy sessions. Realistic goals can also act as reminders to become better. Your medical team can help you set realistic timeframes for resuming specific activities.
- Pursue a prehab program — Your spine will be weakened and injured during the surgery. Therefore, you should work to strengthen the spine and its supporting structures before the treatment to reduce the traumatic effects of the procedure. You can start with light exercises.
- Finally, make arrangements so that everything with the surgery goes smoothly. Find someone to drive you home after the procedure, care for your minor children, and run your errands.
Improving Your Bone Health Before the Procedure: Preparing for Your Michigan Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
Your bones give your body’s skeleton shape, assist you in moving, and protect organs like the heart and brain from sustaining injuries. They also store minerals that are released into your body for several purposes.
You should improve your bone health before your MISS, especially if you suffer from osteoporosis or osteopenia. Improving your bone density reduces the risk of complications.
You can improve your bone mineral density using medication and other strategies like diabetes control, weight loss, and smoking cessation. You can undergo treatment for at least two months before the procedure.
Other tips to improve bone health include the following:
- Avoid smoking and substance abuse
- Have a regular exercise routine — Weight-bearing exercises like climbing stairs, jogging, and walking can assist you build your bones and slow down bone loss.
- Consume a lot of calcium — Calcium helps build bone. Excellent sources of calcium include kale, broccoli, soy products, sardines, almonds, and dairy products.
- Consume a lot of vitamin D — The body requires vitamin D to absorb calcium. Excellent sources of vitamin D are eggs, mushrooms, milk, cereals, and oily fish.
- Consult your doctor — Your physician can help you know whether you are getting sufficient nutrients and whether to consider supplements.
Find a Qualified Surgeon Near Me
If your physician has recommended surgery to address your back or neck pain, you might be concerned about the treatment, including your recovery. Spinal surgeries have always been a challenge. However, in recent years, Michigan minimally invasive spine surgery has allowed doctors to treat patients with improved results and reduced recovery duration. LAMIS uses state-of-the-art technology so that you can get back on your feet fast. We can also assess your health condition to determine your eligibility and tell you what to expect during the procedure so you can make an informed decision. Please call us at 310-734-6088 to book your consultation.
