Serious back pain affects 80% of adults in the US. Well over half of these will be cured by non-surgical means including physical therapy, pain management, lifestyle changes or medications. For those who will need surgery to alleviate the pain in their spine, it is important to know that there have been many surgical advances in spine surgery in the last 30 years. For the aging back, where the vertebrae are bumping against each other, surgery would be an option if leg pain limits normal activity, weakness or numbness in the legs and feet or difficulty in walking or standing. At the South Texas Spinal Clinic a Texas spine surgeon will have the latest technology for each unique case.
These new procedures include minimal tissue destruction and many can be performed in an outpatient center. MITR (minimal invasive tubular retraction) uses a 16mm to 18mm incision through which a series of cannulated tubes are docked into the intervertebral space. This cannulated tube technique is used for lumbar disc fragments, osteophytic stenotic lesions and synovial cysts. The patient is usually able to go back to light work in three to seven days. A Texas spine surgeon will also have access to the latest bone morphogenic protein (BMP) which is a huge advantage over archaic bone grafts and greatly reduces the infection rate, duration of hospitalization and post-op pain.
There are many more new technologies the Texas spine surgeon will have to treat different types of spinal injuries and ailments. Thorough training is needed for learning these surgical techniques and this is sometimes extremely costly for hospitals. South Texas spine surgeons are performing minimally invasive lumbar surgery, and patients need not worry that spinal surgery will be the painful, debilitating process it was in their father’s time. For the young or aged it is worth looking to a Texas spine surgeon for the newest innovative techniques including new procedures that are currently under investigation in the US.
