Spine Surgery

What conditions require spine surgery?

Treatment for back and neck pain typically begins with nonsurgical options such as medication, injections, and physical therapy.

When conservative measures fail to relieve your symptoms or your back or neck pain prevent you from participating in everyday activities, your doctor at Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP may recommend surgical intervention.

Conditions that may require spine surgery include:

• Degenerative disc disease
• A herniated disc
• Spinal stenosis
• Spinal instability
• Kyphosis
• Sacroiliac joint syndrome
• Cervical spondylotic myelopathy
• Spondylolisthesis

Your doctor may also recommend spine surgery to treat spinal compression fractures caused by osteoporosis.

What are the benefits of minimally invasive spine surgery?

Although some spine procedures may require traditional open surgery, the team at Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP repairs your spine using minimally invasive surgery whenever possible.

During a minimally invasive procedure, your surgeon makes a few very small incisions and then inserts specialized tools contained in narrow tubes that fit through these incisions. The key surgical tool, an endoscope or arthroscope, contains lighting and a high-definition camera that gives your surgeon an exceptional view of the surgical site.

Compared to open surgery, minimally invasive procedures offer many benefits, such as:

• Less pain following surgery
• Quicker recovery
• Lower risk of infection
• Minimal scarring

Another advantage of minimally invasive surgery is that your surgeon doesn’t cut your muscles. Instead, they use a tubular retractor to gently create an opening between muscle fibers. After your procedure, the muscles naturally move back into their normal position.

What types of spine surgery are available?

The doctors at Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP use spine surgery to relieve pressure on nerves and stabilize vertebrae and spinal joints. Many procedures that were once performed with open surgery are now done using minimally invasive surgery.

These are a few examples of the many types of spine surgeries performed by the expert surgeons at Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP:

• Spinal fusion: stabilizes the spine by fusing two vertebrae with a bone graft
• Discectomy: removes or trims a herniated disc
• Foraminotomy: enlarges the opening where nerves leave the spine
• Laminectomy: creates more space for the spinal cord by removing part of a vertebra
• Radiofrequency neurotomy: relieves pain using radio waves to block nerve signals

When you need spine surgery, you can rely on the experienced team at Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP. To schedule a consultation, call one of their nine Houston-area offices.