Can Endoscopic Spine Surgery Improve Your Quality of Life Without the Downtime?

Blog Summary:

Endoscopic spine surgery is a minimally invasive option that can relieve radicular symptoms such as pain radiating from your neck into your arms, or from your back radiating into your butt and legs. It uses tiny incisions, causes less tissue damage, and often allows patients to return to normal life within days. Learn if it’s right for you and how it could improve your quality of life — without the long recovery.

If you’ve already tried lifestyle changes and conservative treatment methods, it may be time to consider surgery. But wait, you might think, “Surgery requires long recovery times and may not be worth the risk!” While you’re not necessarily wrong, not all types of surgery are the same. What’s more, not all doctors perform the same surgery in the same manner.

If you’re looking for a method of surgery to eliminate or considerably lessen your back or neck symptoms, you should consider endoscopic spine surgery (ESS). There are many types of surgical procedures that can be performed endoscopically, from lumbar endoscopic discectomy to endoscopic spinal stenosis decompression and endoscopic laminectomy.

To see if you qualify for endoscopic back surgery or neck surgery based on your condition and individual circumstances, get in touch with Dr. Baig today! Otherwise, here’s more information about endoscopic spinal surgery and its benefits to quality of life and recovery time.

What is Endoscopic Spine Surgery?

Endoscopic spine surgery (ESS) is not technically a type of surgery, it’s a surgical approach used to perform various types of surgery. Accordingly, endoscopic cervical spine surgery and endoscopic lumbar spine surgery approaches are available depending on where in the body patients experience issues.

ESS involves the use of a small camera, or endoscope, and various tools inserted into the tissue near the spine via very small incisions. ESS is different from traditional open back surgery such as fusion, and while it is technically a type of minimally invasive spine surgery (MIS), many providers put it into its own category separate from MIS because it is an ultra-minimally invasive way of performing spine surgery. It’s also not the same as laser spine surgery.

Endoscopic spine surgery offers several benefits, including minimal tissue and muscle disruption, less blood loss, and a 16 fold reduction in surgical infections. Patients typically experience no hospital stays, faster recovery times, improved quality of life, and smaller, more cosmetic incisions.

Common types of ESS include:

• Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy: often used to treat herniated discs and sciatica
• Endoscopic Cervical Spine Surgery: often used for neck and arm related pain
• Endoscopic Foraminotomy: often used for spinal stenosis or pinched nerves

A qualified spine surgeon can help you understand whether you are a candidate for these or other types of endoscopic spine surgery.

Life After ESS: Is it Better Than with Traditional Surgery?

In most cases, yes! As noted in our blog post “Spinal Fusion Recovery: What to Expect”,

“Spinal fusion results in decreased flexibility; after all, in this surgical intervention, different vertebrae are fused together. While fusion still may lead to improved quality of life in some ways, in other ways, it may result in discomfort or other lifestyle adjustments. Expecting full mobility after fusion may, for instance, not be realistic.”

Fusion (or other types of traditional surgery) are sometimes necessary. What’s more the change in quality of life often resulting from traditional spine surgery is usually still a markedly positive one compared to the pain that people who need spinal fusion or open surgery often experience pre-operation.

That being said, for patients who do not require more traditional methods of surgery and who are good candidates for endoscopic spine surgery, the post-operative benefits can be significant.

As we covered in our blog post “Life After Endoscopic Spine Surgery: What to Expect”, recovery from ESS is usually both much less intense and much shorter than recovery from most types of traditional open surgery.

What’s more, “most patients feel near immediate relief after having endoscopic spinal surgery performed followed by minor pain in the following days.”

Plus, ESS is unlike most traditional surgery.

Estimated Recovery Times for Different Types of Back Surgery

• Spinal Fusion: Patients are usually able to return to work in around 6 weeks
• Scoliosis Fusion: Patients are usually able to return to work in around 6 weeks
• Decompression: Patients are usually able to return to work in around 2 weeks
• Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Surgery: Patients are usually able to return to work in a few days

Get Relief from Pain Now: Get Assessed for ESS Candidacy

Ready to experience pain relief without a needlessly long recovery period? See if you might be a good candidate for endoscopic spine surgery, performed by expert orthopaedic spine surgeon Dr. Rafath Baig! Get in touch for a medical evaluation now.