A Short Note on Minimally Invasive Lumbar Spine Surgery

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Almost all spine surgeons tout minimally invasiveness in spine surgery as a beneficial focus. The meaning of minimally invasiveness, however, is actually a concept with different meanings for each surgeon. To some, it is the use of smaller incisions using standard surgical approaches, the use of tubular retractors, and/or the use of surgical magnification with a microscope, or an endoscope. Minimally invasiveness often advertises the use of lasers as a sexy and high tech surgical tool to tout their state- of- the- art surgical technique in minimally invasiveness, but it is not used as a needed part of the surgery unless visually used with endoscopes under irrigation.

Studies published in peer reviewed journals promote microscopic surgery, different types of MIS fusion, robotics guided fusion, and minimally invasive lumbar decompression as beneficial and cost effective. All tout less surgical morbidity using the measured parameters of less intra-operative blood loss, less surgical time after a short learning curve, faster recovery, decreased pain, and faster ambulation.

The obvious overall conclusion is that while all spine surgeons support minimally invasive spine surgery, the surgeons are mainly focused on their area of surgical experience and expertise in minimally invasiveness, which takes many forms.