The spine plays a very crucial role, both from a persons movement and sensation point of view. It carries the nervous supply for a lot of internal organs and the lower body. By virtue of its structure, it also helps in movement through the disks. Due to various reasons, spinal injury is common, causing pain along the back, lower extremities, neck etc.

Minimally invasive spine surgery was developed to treat spine problems with less injury to the muscles and other normal structures in the spine. It also helps the surgeon to see only where the problem exists in the spine. Other advantages to MISS include smaller incisions, less bleeding, and shorter stays in the hospital.

Spine surgeries are complicated and have serious repercussions if the procedure doesnt go as planned. Probing your doctor is therefore very critical to ensure a safe operation and early post-op recovery.

Common Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeries

• MIS Lumbar Diskectomy: A herniated disk in the lower back that pinches a nerve may cause severe leg pain, numbness, or weakness. To surgically relieve these symptoms, the disk is removed. This procedure is called a diskectomy. For the surgery, the patient is positioned face-down and a small incision (sometimes less than 1 in.) is made over the location of the herniated disk. The surgeon inserts the retractor and removes a small amount of the lamina bone. This provides the surgeon with a view of the spinal nerve and the disk. The surgeon carefully retracts the nerve, removes the damaged disk, and replaces it with bone graft material. This minimally invasive technique can also be used for herniated disks in the neck. The procedure is done through the back of the neck and called an MIS posterior cervical diskectomy.
• MIS Lumbar Fusion:A standard, open lumbar fusion may be performed from the back, through the abdomen, or from the side. Minimally invasive lumbar fusions can be done the same way.A common MISS fusion is the transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) Using this technique, the surgeon approaches the spine a little bit from the side, which reduces how much the spinal nerve must be moved. In an MIS TLIF, the patient is positioned face-down and the surgeon places one retractor on either side of the spine. This approach prevents disruption of the midline ligaments and bone. Using the two retractors, the surgeon can remove the lamina and the disk, place the bone graft into the disk space, and place screws or rods to provide additional support. Approaching the spine slightly from the side does not provide the surgeon with a full view and it is often a challenge to remove the disk completely. This may make fusion healing more difficult. Sometimes the surgeon will use additional bone graft besides the patients own bone to improve the likelihood of healing.
  Minimally invasive spinal fusion is also commonly performed from the side. There are two procedures that use a side approach: extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) and direct lateral interbody fusion (DLIF). The benefits of these lateral fusion surgeries are that they do not injure the muscles in the back and they do not tug or pull on the nerves in the spinal canal.