Pain in your back or neck doesn’t just affect you – it affects everyone around you and your entire outlook on life. It’s hard to be active, almost impossible to get comfortable, and even harder to engage in the everyday activities most people take for granted.
This pain can be the result of any number of spine conditions that affect the vertebrae of your cervical spine (neck), thoracic spine (upper back), and/or lumbar spine (lower back), the discs between the vertebra, and/or the ligaments, spinal cord, and nerves around the area. Dr. Zhou provides expert care for issues involving the entire spine, with special expertise in lumbar spine fusion.
People often think they just have to learn to live with spine pain or are afraid they will have to have major surgery in order to relieve the pain. Over the last few years, however, there have been numerous advancements in technology that make spine surgery much less invasive than ever. Dr. Zhou uses these advanced treatment options such as minimally invasive spine surgery and endoscopic spine surgery so your pain can be alleviated with a quicker recovery.
However, in most cases, Dr. Zhou will try nonsurgical techniques to treat your pain before he considers spine surgery.
Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS) is a type of surgical technique that can be used to correct problems with far less trauma to surrounding tissues than traditional or “open” surgery. MISS may be considered if conservative treatment has not been successful in relieving your symptoms or in certain conditions where surgery is indicated; for example, if there is pressure on your spinal cord or nerves.
For many minimally invasive procedures, Dr. Zhou may opt to use an endoscopic technique. Endoscopic spine surgery is an advanced, state-of-the-art form of minimally invasive surgery that is designed to give patients an even quicker recovery time and less recurring pain. In fact, endoscopic spine surgery is considered the least invasive of the minimally invasive types of surgeries.