subject: Failed Back Surgery; Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery May Provide Relief [print this page] Failed Back Surgery; Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery May Provide Relief
If you're still in pain after traditional open back surgery, what are your options? No one wants another open surgery with a 3-5 month recovery time. A minimally invasive procedure like endoscopic spine surgery might be the answer.
The fact is Failed Back Syndrome (FBS) or Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS) accounts for the majority of patients that we see at Spinal Centers of America. FBS is simply the diagnosis used when a patient does not experience the expected results from back surgery. FBS does not mean your surgeon did anything wrong. The surgeon's techniques may have been flawless, but for whatever reason the patient continues to experience chronic back pain sometimes greater than before the procedure.
Endoscopic spine surgery has proven to be very successful in cases of FBS because the surgeon can use a "virgin" route avoiding areas scarred from previous surgeries. Endoscopic spine surgery can remove scar tissue from previous surgeries, decompress nerves, remove bony growths that cause pain, repair bulging herniated discs and bulging discs and provide relief for a wide variety of spinal conditions without further damaging muscle tissues or ligaments. In general, endoscopic spine surgery proves to be a much better alternative than pain management treatments that often require strong narcotics or spinal cord stimulator implants.
The endoscopic incision is very small, usually less than an inch, and can be covered by a Band-Aid afterward. Rather than cutting muscles and pulling them with retractors, surgeons trained in endoscopic procedures manipulate tools through a thin endoscopic tube that contains a camera that enables them to navigate to the correct area and perform the procedure. The endoscope minimizes the area that is disturbed to enable the procedure to be done under twilight anesthetic and minimize recovery time.
Patients suffering from Failed Back Syndrome are the biggest proponents of endoscopic spine surgery because they have been through traditional open surgery; spent months recovering; and still suffered from significant back pain. At Spine Centers of America, procedures are performed by board certified orthopedic spine surgeons who have years of training and experience in endoscopic spine surgery, so our success rate is very high. After the procedure, which usually takes an hour or two, patients can expect to walk out of the facility on their own within a few hours with significant or complete relief from pain. Some patients return to work as quickly as three days, while most patients are "back to life" and resume normal activities (or even more active lifestyles) within a week or two.
