A less invasive kind of back surgery is what is much preferred by patients these days. This procedure is called Arthroscopic back surgery where an arthroscope is use. It is a flexible tool like a drinking straw which the surgeon use when operating. The use of such tool and arthroscopic procedures can lessen the patient’s discomfort and its recovery is much faster too. However this method is not suitable for all types of back surgery.
In most instances, the method of arthroscopic back surgery is used with discectomy surgery which is done to treat bulging or herniated disc. During the process, the surgeon will remove part of the disc that compressed the nerves in the spine. Arthroscopic discectomy procedure is commonly use and proven to have less surgical complications.
If both the disc and bone are compressing the spinal nerves then foramenotomy surgery with arthroscopic methods might be the best procedure. This method will remove the disc tissue and bone to lessen numbness and pain.
For cases where it involves conditions like spondylolisthesis or spinal stenosis, a laminectomy is usually use but then this kind of surgery does not work well with arthroscopic techniques. Just like foramenotomy, a laminectomy procedure removes disc tissue and bone but is more serious since it involves the spinal cord thus it is hard to do laminectomy performed arthroscopically. The best combination with laminectomy is spinal fusion although this procedure can be done alone to correct spondylolisthesis.
A new kind of surgery that lets the whole vertebral disc to be replaced with an artificial disc is done by means of arthroscopic techniques which involves lasers. This procedure is done to treat multiple herniated disc or DDD (Degenerative Disc Disease).
The kind of surgery to be performed really depends on your condition. Several factors need to be considered like the severity of the condition will tell you whether or not an arthroscopic back surgery is possible for you. However more serious conditions may need the traditional surgical methods where larger incisions are necessary.