Sarasota Memorial Expanding Limits of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
Nearly one in 10 Americans are living with chronic back pain so serious it impacts their ability to perform everyday activities. Many opt against surgery, fearing large incisions and long recovery times associated with many traditional procedures.
But the benefits of robotic and minimally invasive surgical techniques are now allowing spine surgeons to repair a wide range of spine conditions through key-hole incisions, and giving patients with debilitating back pain more treatment options than ever before.
SMH’s advanced tools and technologies give spine surgeons the precision, visualization and flexibility to address a much wider range of diseases and disorders through tiny incisions instead of one large opening, and that leads to less pain and downtime for patients.
While not everyone is a candidate, conditions that can now be treated with minimally invasive techniques include:
- Disc herniations
- Lumbar stenosis
- Lumbar fusions
- Synovial cysts
Compared to traditional open surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery offers many advantages, including:
- Shorter hospital stays
- Faster recovery
- Less damage to surrounding tissue
- Lower risks of infection and complications
SMH offers a number of advanced technologies to support minimally invasive spine surgery, including:
Robotic-assisted Surgery
Globus Medical’s ExcelsiusGPS system is a robotic guidance system that allows spine surgeons to plan and execute complex spinal procedures, using preoperative imaging scans to create a 3D map of a patient’s spine and a robotic arm to assist in navigation and precise placement of instrumentation and screws.
Guidance/Navigation Systems
Stryker’s Q Guidance System is an intraoperative navigation system that uses optical tracking and sophisticated software to help surgeons visualize the patient’s spine in real time during surgery and ensure precise instrument placement.
Augmedics’ xvision is an augmented reality guidance system, in which surgeons wear a headset that projects a 3D image of CT scans onto their display, allowing them to accurately maneuver instruments and position implants while looking directly at the patient.
Endoscopic/Tubular Systems
The Elliquence endoscopic spine technology uses tiny cameras (endoscopes) to provide surgeons detailed views inside the spine and enable targeted intervention with minimal impact to healthy tissue.
Like endoscopic procedures, the Teligen system, allows surgeons to operate through a small tube using specialized tools, but with a multidirectional camera that provides a larger, clearer field of view. The advanced technology allows surgeons greater visibility and maneuverability to perform complex spine procedures through 1/4- to 1/2-inch sized incisions.