Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures: Do They Work?

What Are Our Minimally Invasive Solutions for Pain Management?

When medications and physical therapy have left you in a cycle of pain and frustration, minimally invasive procedures offer a powerful alternative. These advanced treatments work by targeting the specific nerves, joints, or areas causing your pain, providing relief that lasts. Unlike traditional surgery, these procedures typically involve small incisions, reduced risks, and faster recovery times.

Neuromodulation

Neuromodulation therapy, or spinal cord stimulation, offers an innovative and effective approach to pain relief. One of its standout features is that it’s the only long-term pain management option you can try before committing to it. Patients start with a simple outpatient trial – similar to an injection – with no incisions required. This allows them to experience potential relief firsthand before deciding on the implant.

This FDA-approved treatment is particularly effective for chronic back pain, leg pain, and certain types of nerve pain. With advancing digital technology, neuromodulation delivers exceptional results, offering ongoing upgrades through quick, non-invasive Bluetooth reprogramming. If a patient no longer needs it, the device can either remain unnoticed or be easily removed in a short procedure.

Beyond pain relief, neuromodulation and similar techniques offer another significant benefit: reduced dependency on medications, injections, surgeries, and even visits to pain doctors. Many patients previously required multiple injections per year—sometimes 6 to 7 procedures annually for chronic pain in multiple areas like the neck and lower back. With neuromodulation, the need for these frequent interventions is greatly reduced.

While no treatment offers 100% relief, neuromodulation can significantly improve a patient’s pain, functionality, and quality of life. It empowers patients to become less reliant on the medical system, pain specialists, and medication, giving them more independence and control over their pain management journey.

Sacroiliac Joint Stabilization

SI joint stabilization, also known as SI joint fusion, addresses pain in the sacroiliac joint, which connects your spine to your pelvis. This minimally invasive procedure uses small titanium implants to stabilize the joint and reduce pain. The procedure takes about an hour, and most patients can return to normal activities within a few weeks.

Minimally Invasive Disc Decompression

Minimally invasive disc decompression treats herniated or bulging discs without the need for traditional open surgery. Using specialized instruments and imaging guidance, techniques such as hemilaminectomy and laminectomy allow us to remove or repair damaged disc material through tiny incisions. This approach reduces pressure on nerves while preserving healthy tissue and spinal stability.

Radiofrequency Ablation of the Vertebral Nerve

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses radio waves to interrupt pain signals from damaged nerves. However, it's crucial to understand that not all RFA treatments are the same. The type of nerve being treated determines the duration of pain relief.

For some conditions, like pain from facet joints, RFA offers significant relief that can last for six months or more. In these cases, the targeted nerves can eventually regenerate, similar to hair growing back. While not a permanent solution, it provides a much-needed break from daily pain.

For other conditions, such as degenerative disc disease (DDD), RFA can provide a permanent solution. Patients with "bone on bone" pain in their lower back may be candidates for RFA of the basivertebral nerve. This nerve's only function is to send pain signals from the vertebral endplates, which become irritated as discs degenerate. Unlike other nerves, the basivertebral nerve cannot grow back once treated.

This minimally invasive outpatient procedure takes under 30 minutes and can be performed with conscious sedation. We don't leave anything behind; we simply turn off the specific nerve causing your "bone on bone" pain, potentially offering lifelong relief from that particular source of discomfort. While it won't eliminate all back pain (as pain can also come from other sources like facet joints), it can permanently resolve the pain from degenerative disc disease.

Minimally Invasive Spinal Arthrodesis

Minimally invasive spinal arthrodesis is a fusion technique that stabilizes painful segments of your spine through small incisions. This approach significantly reduces muscle damage and scarring compared to traditional fusion surgery, leading to faster recovery and less post-operative pain while still providing excellent long-term stability.

This represents a major technological leap in spinal care, much like the incredible advancements witnessed in cardiac surgery. Just 15-20 years ago, a coronary artery bypass typically meant open-chest surgery, weeks in the ICU, and months of intense rehabilitation. Today, many cardiac interventions – from stenting to valve replacement – are often outpatient procedures performed through tiny keyhole incisions, completely revolutionizing recovery.

We are now seeing a similar paradigm shift for spinal pain patients. While traditional open spinal surgeries, involving extensive bone removal and prolonged recovery, are still prevalent, innovative technology now offers minimally invasive solutions for many suitable candidates. For conditions like spinal stenosis and neurogenic claudication (pain when standing or walking due to degenerative spine disease), what once required several hours in the operating room, multiple days in the hospital, and months of rehabilitation can now often be addressed with much smaller incisions, less tissue disruption, and even on an outpatient basis.

This is a monumental change. While it's essential to understand that not every patient is indicated for these advanced techniques, for those who qualify, the difference in recovery and overall experience is profound. It truly offers patients a choice, providing a significantly less invasive path to spinal stability and pain relief.

Minimally Invasive Facet Stabilization

Minimally invasive facet stabilization targets the small joints in your spine that become arthritic and painful. While sometimes called "facet fusions," we prefer "stabilization" because it accurately describes how we help your spine without the negative connotations of traditional fusion.

Many age-related or degenerative spinal conditions lead to significant wear and tear on spinal discs, nerves, and joints. When other treatments like RFA, injections, or conservative therapies no longer help, it's often due to extensive wear and tear, especially in the lumbar spine. Our technique stabilizes these segments with a much less invasive procedure and minimal exposure, all performed on an outpatient basis.

Imagine spinal joints rubbing bone-on-bone due to severe degenerative disc or joint disease. Our very small stabilizing devices are placed in about an hour while you're comfortably asleep. You go home the same day and can start walking the next. While complete healing takes a few to several weeks, we recommend specific exercises starting around two weeks post-procedure.

This isn't like major, multi-level fusion surgeries. We avoid extensive cutting and dissecting of spinal muscles, which is a key advantage of our techniques. This type of facet stabilization – a very minimally invasive, outpatient procedure – stabilizes those specific, problematic spinal joints so they no longer grind against each other. This brings significant pain relief. While no one gets 100% relief, most patients experience a notable, long-term pain reduction and can bend, lift, and twist better than before within weeks, not months or a year. Less exposure means less risk, and it's well-proven that minimizing open anatomy leads to better outcomes.

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS)

Peripheral nerve stimulator (PNS) therapy is one of the least invasive and mentally demanding techniques we offer for treating chronic pain in your arms, legs, face, hips, or other areas outside the spinal cord. Much like the MILD procedure, this treatment primarily involves needle placement, meaning we don't cut anything. Similar to spinal cord stimulation, PNS uses electrical pulses to block pain signals from reaching your brain.

What makes PNS particularly beneficial is its versatility. While spinal neuromodulation is highly effective, PNS can be used in situations where spinal neuromodulation isn't suitable, hasn't provided relief, or for specific pain locations it can't address, such as chronic shoulder pain, chronic knee pain, chronic face pain, chronic headaches, or chronic hip pain (especially after knee or hip replacement, or even to help avoid such surgeries).

The process begins with a 7-day outpatient trial. We carefully place hair-thin receiver wires – literally like a strand of hair – just about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch under the skin. During this trial, the patient themselves can determine how much relief they experience and how much it helps their specific pain, much like with other neuromodulation techniques. We only recommend proceeding with permanent implantation if the patient reports at least 50% or more significant relief in pain and a similar improvement in their function.

If the trial is successful, the permanent placement is a remarkably minimally invasive technique that typically takes less than an hour, often just 30 to 40 minutes. This is performed under comfortable sedation (intravenous or monitored anesthesia care) if indicated, meaning you're comfortably sedated, and you wake up when we're done. After a couple of weeks for the very small incision to heal, patients can gradually return to their normal physical lives. While we don't usually see 100% relief, most patients experience between 50% to 95% long-term relief, significantly reducing their dependency on medicines.

Each of these treatments is backed by scientific research and has helped thousands of patients regain their quality of life. During your consultation, we'll discuss which options might be right for your specific condition and help you understand what to expect throughout the process.