Replacement surgeries have become popular over the years. This kind of surgery has been used to replace hips, joints, and bones of the spine in order to treat chronic pain. In this section, we shall discuss disc replacement surgery for back pain relief. There are many techniques developed recently for surgery of the spine.

Many surgeons even think that spine disc surgery using an artificial disc is going to be an advance in medical science soon, and many people are going to try it for treating back pain. Such surgery would be done through endoscopy and laparoscopy most of the time. So, the patient will not have to go through rigorous pain and the inherent dangers of open spine surgery any more.

Disc Replacement Surgery For Back Pain Relief

Disc Replacement Surgery For Back Pain Relief Is Getting Better Results Due To Advances In Technology

Doctors have been replacing knees and hips for years. Now they’re able to replace discs in the spine as well. This surgery is similar to another type of surgery called spinal fusion. In fusion, a disc is removed from between two vertebrae and replaced by a piece of bone, usually taken from the hip. In disc replacement, a prosthetic disc is used instead. Although the procedure has been used for years in Europe, its approval in the United States is pending the results of an FDA trial currently underway at 10 centers across the country.

 

For people with severe back pain, like Boles, disc replacement is a welcome alternative to fusion, because it restores motion and the patient only stays in the hospital for a day or two. Fusion can also rapidly degenerate. “Sometimes, we have patients who need fusion every two years,” says Fabien Bitan, M.D., a surgeon at the Spine Institute who is heading the FDA study there. “After two or three times it’s a real problem.”

 

Some surgeons have a “wait and see” attitude toward replaced discs, because they’re not sure what will happen down the road. “They may not last the lifetime of the patient,” says John Strugar, M.D., a neurosurgeon at the Yale School of Medicine. Although the same is true for hips and knees, disc replacement will probably be performed on younger patients, he says. Still, he thinks this surgery will be common in a couple of years.

 

The overall trend in spinal surgery is toward minimally invasive procedures, says Frank Cammisa, chief of the Spinal Service and director of the Spine Care Institute at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, N.Y. Surgeons are using endoscopic or laproscopic techniques, which were originally developed for other parts of the body, on the spine. For example, they can now perform endoscopic discectomies for herniated discs. This involves inserting an endoscope, a tube that allows doctors to see and operate, into a tiny incision and removing excess tissue from around the disc. Soon, it will be possible to perform endoscopic fusions, Cammisa says.

 

Another alternative to fusion is intradiscalelectrothermal therapy (IDET). In this technique, a catheter delivers heat, which is used to burn cartilage around the disc. “The nice thing about it is it’s a fairly quick procedure and helps some people,” says Strugar. “It may save a certain number of patients from having to do a bigger surgical procedure,” says Cammisa.

 

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When the disc of the spine degenerates in patients due to various reasons, they develop disabling physical situations and chronic back pain. Artificial disc replacement surgery for back pain relief has come to be a promising solution for these patients. Until a few years back these patients were treated with medications, injections, and different kinds of physical therapies to help them keep moving. However, artificial disc surgery has proved to be an alternative treatment for treating back pain using artificial discs to replace degenerated disc. The approval of the treatment is still pending though. Due to some side effects of this treatment such as infection at the place of the implant,dislocation, and breakage of the implant, then the surgeon often needs to choose the patients with respect to age and weight for suitability for surgery.

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