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Laser Surgery for Back Pain

Marketing of laser surgery for back pain has become big business, and there are no shortage of Websites, radio spots, television ads, and even bus stop billboards declaring the latest and greatest surgical innovations that will cure you of your back pain. In these ads, laser spine centers often cite their safe, minimally invasive techniques, high success rates, and short recovery times.

  1. Advantages of Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures

    • Minimally invasive surgery for back pain, be it laser surgery or any other endoscopic procedure, does come with some obvious advantages over traditional "open back" surgery. Because minimally invasive procedures require smaller incisions, there is less bleeding during the surgery and less scar tissue formed afterwards. It is also possible for laser surgeries to be performed with safer, local anesthesia, and as laser back surgeries do not cause as much disruption to the surrounding muscles and tissues as 'open back' surgery, they generally require only a short hospital stay. Most laser procedures have recuperation times of less than two weeks.

    Laser surgery procedure

    • The majority of lumbar surgeries are performed to relieve the pressure that a bulging disk or piece of bone material is applying to spinal nerves, and the goal of laser back surgery is to relieve the nerves from this pressure while causing as little trauma to the spinal area as possible. To achieve this relief through laser back surgery, the surgeon will make an incision that is no larger than necessary to accommodate the tools (less then one inch long). After a special portal is inserted into the incision, a laser is used to dissolve parts of bulging or herniated disks. This short, minimally invasive procedure generally takes less than an hour to perform, and although you must consult your surgeon on their personal success rate, if the source of the patient's back pain was indeed the pressure on the spinal nerve, relief should be discovered almost immediately following the surgery.

    Misconceptions

    • Because lasers cannot cut bone, in general, most 'laser only' back surgeries are some type of discectomy, a procedure in which parts of bulging or herniated disks are dissolved by the laser. The removal of any bone material during a surgical procedure will necessitate the use of specially adapted mechanical tools. Although laser surgery for back pain has been performed for the past few decades, its effectiveness has never been studied in controlled clinical trials, and laser spine surgery is not offered by many major orthopedic hospitals, such as Minnesota's Mayo Clinic and New York's Hospital for Special Surgery. These hospitals do offer minimally invasive surgery, but with the use of traditional tools that have been specially adapted to remove disk and bone tissue.

    Alternatives

    • While laser back surgery and other minimally invasive approaches, like traditional endoscopy, have a track record for pain relief, a patient's particular spinal condition can sometimes indicate a different type of surgery or even no surgery at all. Many back pain sufferers will discover relief through non-invasive approaches such as physical therapy and rest. Those with more serious spinal issues which require, among other procedures, the installation of artificial discs, or the fusion of vertebrae, will need to undergo more invasive operations so that the hardware can be properly installed in the spine.

    Considerations

    • Even with the advantages of minimally invasive techniques, spinal surgery is a serious choice and comes with a clear set of risks for any candidate. Because of this, it is the patient's right and responsibility to understand everything about a surgical procedure, especially its viability and success rate, before they decide to go through it.

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