A 15-minute spine surgery could reduce your back pain

• April 4, 2019

For years, minimally invasive spinal fusion has been seen as the recommended option for treating most patients with back pain caused by arthritis of the spine. I’m Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Medical Director at Phoenix Spine & Joint, and I’m here to tell you that there are more advanced options available now. In fact, for many patients with back pain from spinal arthritis, direct visualized rhizotomy from our team is a 15-minute spine surgery that may be a better option.

What is direct visualized rhizotomy?

Direct visualized rhizotomy is a procedure we use at Phoenix Spine & Joint to treat many patients with back pain resulting from spinal arthritis. The procedure is designed to reduce pain by cutting the nerve fibers that are transmitting pain signals from your back, and it’s a much less invasive alternative than even minimally invasive spinal fusion, and more robust than radiofrequency ablation.

There are several tools that make direct visualized rhizotomy possible, but one of the most important is the endoscope. This is a thin, flexible tube that has a tiny camera on the end of it. The endoscope is inserted into your back through a small incision, which is often only 5 millimeters long. The camera at the end of the endoscope then transmits a picture to a screen in the surgical suite, and this image allows our surgeons to see exactly which nerve must be cut.

Thanks to the endoscope and our high level of experience with this procedure, our surgeons often need only about 15 minutes to make the incision, identify and cut the pain-causing nerve fibers, and close the incision. Our team is also proud that we’re able to complete our surgeries with a 0% post-surgery infection rate.

Find out if you could benefit from direct visualized rhizotomy from Phoenix Spine & Joint

If you’ve been told you need a minimally invasive spinal fusion to reduce back pain from spinal arthritis, you may want to consider a second opinion. In fact, Phoenix Spine & Joint offers direct visualized rhizotomy procedures designed to provide benefits such as:

• Regaining spinal mobility
• Reducing back pain
• Faster recovery times
• Low risk of infection
• High success rate

Contact one of our patient care coordinators today for more information about 15-minute spine surgery or to schedule a free second opinion.