An Inside Look at Robotic Spine Surgery

The primary goal of spine surgery has always been to help the patient realize a successful and sustainable outcome with minimal complications. However, in the last fifteen to twenty years when technology in the medical field has taken off, robotic spine surgery has allowed for more specific goals and objectives with greater efficacy.

Some of the most goals behind robotic spine surgery include: allowing the patient to return to as normal a life as possible after surgery; to get them to that point as quickly as possible; and to minimize the amount of trauma done to the body during the surgery. If you think you might be a good candidate for robotic spine surgery, then read on to learn more.

Advantages of Robotic Spine Surgery

As a form of minimally invasive surgery (or MIS,) robotic spine surgery has many benefits. There is improved safety when using a robot guided by the CT or MRI scans of the patient. The robot knows where to, and where not to, go. This is true for both simple and complex surgeries so accuracy rates have risen dramatically when it comes to MIS spine surgeries, resulting in fewer instances of patients having to have their spinal surgery re-done within a few years.

Also, there is a minimized use of radiation, as the CT or MRI scans only have to be done once prior to the surgery, instead of having to have the patient under constant radiation in the operating room to see where the instruments are in the spine as most robotic devices are also equipped with cameras.

For more insight regarding the advantages of robotic spine surgery, see the video below of Mazor's Spine Assist technology:

 

Applications for Robotic Spinal Surgery

There are many types of spinal problems that robotic spinal surgery can be used for, including: degenerative spinal conditions, spine tumors, spinal deformities, and more. If there is a slipped disc or instability in an area of the back, the robotic spine surgeon may perform a fusion of two or more vertebrae. Before robotic spine surgery, this would include an incision to open up the back long enough to expose all vertebrae involved in the fusion.

Now, it can all be done with the robotic device using MIS. Because of this, the recovery time for this type of surgery has drastically reduced and patients are getting on with their lives faster than ever.

A study done recently looked at over 600 surgeries where nearly half were considered MIS. Over 3,200 implants were placed during these surgeries and the overall accuracy rating was over 98%. The use of robotic spine surgery compared to open surgery on the spine has led one study to determine that implant accuracy has improved by at least 70%, the radiation that patients get with each surgery has been reduced by over 50% and the amount of time that each patient stays in the hospital after surgery has been reduced by over 25%.

There are many types and designs of robotic spine surgery devices and each one is proprietary to the manufacturer and the surgeon that uses each one will need training on how to use them. Chances are that a spine surgeon will have a preferred robotic spine surgery unit that he prefers to use so that he or she is comfortable with it every time in the operating room.

The Science & Technology Behind Minimally-Invasive Spine Surgery

Minimally-invasive spine surgery is a type of surgery that minimizes damages of soft tissue such as muscles. Minimally-invasive spine surgery is always less risky and less invasive option when compared to the traditional open spinal surgery.

Shown here is Dr. Joshua Rovner, a reputable New Jersey
spine surgeon and advocate of minimally-invasive spine surgery.

In most cases, minimally-invasive spine surgery often uses a thin, lighted tube whenever one put through a small incision or cut during a surgery. In the medical industry today, spinal surgeons use it when finding problems like cysts, adhesions, fibroids and severe infections.

Many spine and orthopedic surgeons often used advanced procedure of minimally-invasive spine surgery that can be performed exclusively via one single entry point – that means using only one single small incision. In some cases, you can call it as Single Site Laparoscopy. Minimally-invasive spine surgery always has many advantages over open traditional procedures that has made it one of the most recommended surgery techniques that are quickly becoming adopted by the top orthopedic spine surgeons, like Dr. Joshua Rovner of New Jersey (shown in the image above).

The Primary Goals Behind Minimally-Invasive Spine Surgery?

Here are the two main goals of minimally-invasive spine surgery:

• Decompression - Minimally-invasive spine surgery is used when taking pressure off (or when decompressing) your nerve roots or spinal cord during surgery. The pressure can sometimes cause severe pain and pinched nerves. The goal of minimally-invasive spine surgery procedure is always to relieve the pressure at the same time reducing pain of a patient during surgery.
• Stabilization - In some cases, mobile segment can be one source of abnormal movement or pains in the body after a surgery. When this does happens, surgery stabilization may be needed. Minimally-invasive spine surgery is typically a good fusion, which is done with more instrumentation. Orthopedic surgeons often use it these cases to reduce the severe pain and tissues damage.

Top 3 Minimally-Invasive Spine Surgery Techniques

The three main minimally-invasive spine surgery techniques include the following:

1. Mini-Open Spine Surgery

Mini-open spine surgery is less similar to the traditional open procedure and has fewer risks, like less loss of blood during and after surgery and less infection risks since incision is smaller. Many advances in visualization in medical field today have made possible to have mini-open surgical procedures.

2. Tubular Spine Surgery

Tubular spine surgery involves use of a tubular retractor that acts as a tunnel, which passes through muscles of the back to access spine. Minimally-invasive spine surgery using a tubular retractor is usually called "muscle-splitting" approach. When you compare it to the open spine surgery, it has less blood loss and muscle damage when using this tubular retractor.

3. Endoscopic Spine Surgery

Endoscopic spine surgery uses a very tiny video camera known as an endoscope—that is much smaller compared to a dime—when passing through very small surgical incisions (often less than 1.5 cm) as a way to access a spine. Many neurological surgeons commonly refer to the procedure as "keyhole surgery" since endoscope will always guide surgeon by showing them a view of internal body on the screens in an operating room.


These three types of minimally-invasive spine surgery can be used in various spine surgeries, such as foraminotomy, discectomy, and laminectomy and a laminotomy. Sometimes a orthopedic surgeon can use fluoroscope during minimally-invasive spine surgery since fluoroscopes have X-rays that can guide them during the procedure.

In conclusion, the above is a review of the science and technology behind minimally-invasive spine surgery that patients should know.

Minimally-Invasive Spine Surgery Procedures That Work Wonders

For many individuals, a time comes when you might feel an exercise and form of therapy is not effectively lessening your back pain. In cases when individuals must reach to their last resort, spine surgery can offer a great solution.

While many spine surgeons will suggest almost every alternative to before going under the knife, still many individuals qualify for spine surgery. When this is the case, opting for minimally-invasive spinal surgery procedures can be the best route.

There are several forms of minimally-invasive spine surgery, each of which depends on the unique situation of each patient. Below we discuss a some of the most common and why they are highly effective procedures at helping individuals restore their spinal health, mobility, and overall well-being.

What is Minimally-Invasive Spinal Surgery?

When a tubular restructuring part is utilized to gain success in spine surgery then it is being called “minimally-invasive spine surgery”. In this way the spine surgeon does not need to cut the back muscles but does it by split opening the back bone. This particular form of minimally-invasive spine surgery in New Jersey is being used to eradicate the herniated back disc.

If somebody is suffering from spinal stenosis or spinal fracture and compression then he might get relief from this surgery. It requires less recovery period as compared to the other spinal surgeries and can treat problems in the area of lumbar and cervical spine disorders. It never causes any inflammation or infection to the operated area.

Laminectomy

This particular minimally invasive spine surgery is used to eradicate the bone named lamina that is why it gets its name as laminectomy. This procedure is being called as decompression by the spine surgeons.

A Laminectomy is really a simple spinal surgery and is used to heal spinal stenosis, lumbar cord problems and spondylitis. It is also considered to be the safest and affordable spine surgery above all.

Discectomy

Your spine is created by twenty four vertebrae altogether. The shape of this seems like a tower of hollow bricks and all the bones are connected by a rubbery item called discs. The whole arrangement made us stand straight or bend our back portion.

If you contain any hernia tic disc among them then you first need to cut that off and discectomy procedure helps you with that. This spine surgery eradicates a herniated portion from the lined discs between each spinal bone. After the herniated bone gets operated then patient can feel the normal pressure of the nerves.

Spinal Fusion

When a patient has an unusual problem, like if his body needs to keep two vertebrae closer together, then spine surgeons will often use the procedure named spinal fusion. The relapsed disc attacks in the ache on movement of all the spinal bones. If someone got into any accident and broke one limb and wish to remove that then he took the help of spinal fusion surgery.

Foraminotomy

When the back tissues start to compress the nerves, then spine surgeons use foraminotomy to make people free from pain. Foraminotomy only assists to eradicate a fraction of a bone of the compressed human nerves. If the herniated bone does not get relief by the Discectomy procedure then also this process come to a use for spine surgeons.