Endoscopic Spine Surgery is extreme minimally invasive spine surgery used in the treatment of back pain, leg pain, numbness and weakness, bone spurs, bulging discs, stenosis, herniated disc, facet joint disease, sciatica, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis and more.

It is spine surgery with a skin incision less than 1-inch, but it is more than just a small incision. The surgery is done through a tube in between back muscles to decrease muscle damage and weakness caused by muscle retraction. Minimally invasive surgery is not the same as “microsurgery”. “Microsurgery” only refers to the use of a microscope not the size of the incision or the amount of muscle damage.

This procedure allows a tube the size of a pencil to be inserted into the spine through an incision approximately 7mm in size. The muscles are not cut or torn but pushed to the side to allow this small tube to enter the spine. From there we use a very small high definition camera to see the spine anatomy to remove a disk herniation, bone spurs, thickened ligament and cut dorsal medial branch nerves under direct view. Most patients will have immediate pain relief.

For example, a herniated disk pinches the nerve causing back and leg pain called sciatica. This burning, stabbing pain can be very debilitating to the person. During a traditional spine surgery, an incision is made and a retractor is placed retracting the multifidus spinal muscles. The multifidus muscle injury is decreased with Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS). Bone and ligament are then cut away to expose the nerves increasing risk of scar tissue. The nerve root is then gently pulled to the side and the disc is removed to decompress the nerve.