Minimally Invasive Back Surgery from Medwatch 7 KSWO on Vimeo.

Minimally invasive back surgery has a lot of benefits to the patient. There’s a decrease in tissue damage, decrease in blood loss, and a faster recovery time. We scrubbed in at Comanche county memorial Hospital to watch one of these surgery’s up close and personal.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Duncan performed a minimally invasive lumbar microdiscectomy.

“The surgery is to take pressure off of the nerve in the spinal canal. Usually that pressure is caused by a disc compressing a nerve. It causes pain radiating down the leg. It can also cause numbness, tingling, or weakness in a certain muscle group,” says Dr. Duncan. “The beautiful thing about this surgery is that it can take anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half.”

Using a minimally invasive approach, the patient is able to return back to work quicker.

“The patient is able to get up and walk after surgery, they are able to eat, they’re able to go home,” says Dr. Duncan.

Another benefit is that the patients needs a lot less pain medicine during their recovery.

“If you’re having symptoms that are consistent with a herniated disc such as back pain with radiation down the leg, you need to see your family doctor, be evaluated, have an MRI, and then be evaluated by a surgeon if your family doctor feels you need to be evaluated,” says Dr. Duncan.

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