What’s the Difference Between Arthritis and Bursitis?
They both cause joint pain and swelling, but arthritis and bursitis aren’t the same. Find out the difference between these two issues to better understand which one is causing your joint pain.
Will Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Alleviate Your Back Pain?
If you have persistent back pain that hasn’t resolved with other medical interventions, you may be a candidate for minimally invasive spine surgery. At Orthopedic & Wellness Center in Frederick and Waldorf, Maryland, our dedicated surgeon Ojedapo Ojeyemi, MD, only recommends open surgery if it absolutely cannot be avoided. Using minimally invasive spine surgery, our team is able to help many more people.
What is minimally invasive spine surgery?
Minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) is a conservative surgical option that our team uses to work on your backbone. Instead of making a long incision along your spine and opening up your back like traditional surgery requires, MISS only necessitates an incision big enough to get a small pipe-shaped tool through. With a small microscope and precision tools, one of our skilled surgeons performs the delicate surgery.
Like traditional or open surgery, the goal is to completely eradicate pain and to restore your function and quality of life.
Reasons to get MISS
Even though it’s minimally invasive, spine surgery is the last resort. If you’ve struggled for months or years with disruptive pain that doesn’t get better with medicine, chiropractic care, physical therapy, or acupuncture, Dr. Ojeyemi may recommend surgery. Even then, he’ll need to zero in on the exact problem and area before surgery is a viable option.
Back problems that responds well to MISS include:
- Compressed nerves
- Disc replacement
- Herniated disc
- Ruptured disc
- Tumor on your spine
- Degeneration
- Bone spurs
- Scoliosis and other deformities
Will MISS alleviate my back pain?
The short answer: yes!
In addition to relieving your acute, chronic, or severe back pain and greatly reducing postoperative pain, MISS offers these incredible additional benefits:
- Less anesthesia needed
- Dramatically smaller incision
- Shorter hospital stay
- Far less blood loss
- Decreased risk of infection
- Speedier return to school, work, and daily activities
- No muscle stripping as in open surgery
- Less complications
- Costs less than open surgery
What’s more, MISS provides better final outcomes than open surgery.
What about pain as I recover from the surgery?
Because of the smaller incision and decreased invasiveness of the surgery, you’ll only need to stay in the hospital for 1-2 days and you’ll be in far less pain than with traditional surgery. In addition, Dr. Ojeyemi works with Matthew Roh, MD, our pain medicine specialist, to ensure you’re healing well with minimal discomfort. We check on you often throughout your healing process, which can take between 4-12 weeks. If necessary, we can make adjustments to your pain medicine as you heal.
If you suffer from back pain and would like to talk to one of our spine and pain specialists, call our office or book your consultation online.
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