A case of spinal tumour treated by

our less invasive spinal fixation system using

conventional screws and rods along

with a vertebroplasty

Note the small scars as a result of the surgery.

The patient could be mobilized immediately after surgery and was mobile within 24 hours.

Such is the magic of minimally invasive Surgery!!

The use of abdominal and thoracic endoscopy allows us to use the chest and abdominal cavities with minimal disruption of the structres. These are particularly useful in the management of paraspinal abscesses and in the biopsy of tumours arising from the front of the vertebrae.

Spinal endoscopy is an elegant way to achieve decompression of the nervous structures and spina cord with minimum disruption of the surrounding structures and bone.

We have pioneered a system of Less Invasive Spinal Fixation whereby the conventional pedicle screws are inserted using a minimally invasive technique with tremendous cost and convenience benefits to the patient. We also use conventional Minimally invasive systems for achieving the goals of spine fixation with minimum trauma.

The AxiaLIF system which we have been the pioneers of in india represents an elegant way to do a fusion from the last vertebra to the sacrum without disturbing the posterior structures. This is particularly useful in the context of patients who have had back surgery in the past and the problem has recurred and the old approach or incision is not inviting

MINIMALLY INVASIVE SPINE SURGERY

The Philosophy of Minimally Invasive Surgery arises from the realization that a lot of traditional surgery including the spine relies on large extensive approaches to approach relatively small structures and result in disproportional damage to the surrounding structures, which was responsible for much of the morbidity and complications of surgery.

As someone rightly commented, you should not have to knock the walls down to get the car into the garage.

With a combination of advances in imaging and understanding of human anatomy, "safe zones" of approach have been delineated through which the target structures can be approached without causing any serious damage to surrounding vital structures and at the same time targeting the diseased part adequately.

This has lead to the development of Minimally invasive Spine Surgery where these princliples are followed. Using a combination of percutanous incsions, small incision portals and endoscopes, the approaches have been developed and standardized so that the procedures which required large incsions have been done with relatively minor incisions and with the same adequacy.

The major benefits are that of greatly reduced blood loss and very little postoperative pain to the patient.