Keyhole surgery for Slip Disc (Disc Prolapse)

The world is moving at a fast pace and technological advances are there to see in every field of life. From the big incision/open surgeries, spine surgery has also advanced to microscopic minimally invasive spine surgery, endoscopic surgery and keyhole surgery.

These modalities when carefully chosen in right patients, give excellent outcome and much shorter hospital stay along with reduced period of rest and quick return to work.

A lot of key-hole spine surgeries are done without general anaesthesia, which means the patient is awake during the surgery and able to provide active feedback to the operating surgeon. These surgeries are mostly done under Local anesthesia i.e. numbing just the part of spine that needs to be operated.

Key-hole Spine Surgery is done through a small tube with specially designed instruments and high definition /resolution cameras and monitors. This produces minimal pain in the operative site, reduced blood loss and almost no risk of complications like nerve injury/paralysis/risk to life etc.

Suitable cases for keyhole surgery include cases of Slip Disc (Lumbar Disc Prolapse)/sciatica and certain cases of spinal infection.

Keyhole surgeries aim at direct removal of prolapsed disc fragments and no removal /handling/trauma to surrounding normal tissue. This allows the patient to start walking on the same day of surgery. The Key-hole surgery can be done as a day care procedure reducing hospitalization. As the patients return to work early, there is much less loss of work hours and productivity.

In cases of infection this modality can be used to relieve pressure from the disc and nerve and also collect sample from the diseased area for a better diagnosis to initiate specific treatment at a much earlier stage of spinal infection.