Endoscopic Spine Speeds Up Recovery!

One of the most difficult things about spine surgery is recovery after the procedure. Traditional spine operations - where the muscle is stripped off the spine to allow access to the spine - leads to a lot of muscle damage, postop pain, and temporary disability. For some patients, the muscle weakness that results from major spinal surgery can be a lifelong struggle. 

There are two ways to combat or overcome this problem.

First, I encourage my patients to exercise soon after surgery (a few weeks at most), initially by walking and light activity, followed by more progressive resistance training for the back, hips and legs. The muscles of the spine are like any other muscle of the body: if you don't use it, you lose it! Our bodies are highly efficient in their design and they will not waste energy and time maintaining muscle mass that is not being used. If we sit on our couches and walk to our fridges after surgery for weeks and months at a time, it won't be long before our back muscles shrink and become mush!

Think about your biceps muscle. If you want really strong biceps, you know you cannot accomplish that goal without lifting weights, starting with a light weight, but progressing each workout - from 2 to 5 to 7.5 to 10 to 15 pounds, for example - in order to build strength. It is the magic of that resistance, increasing over time, workout after workout, that gives your muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments the appropriate signals to lay down stronger tissue. 

Your back muscles are no different. They need strength training also! In fact, the back is more complex because of its inherent connections to the hips and legs (collectively known as the posterior chain). Thus, a commitment to training all of these muscles is necessary for a healthy back that can recover from surgery and hopefully be less prone to injury in the future. 

Second, we can do less muscle damage in surgery. Here, endoscopic spine surgery excels, because, through an incision no wider than a pencil, we remove disc fragments, bone spurs, check nerve impingement, and many other procedures without major disruption to the muscles. In fact, a patient who has an endoscopic spine surgery often goes home the same day! And should she or he get an MRI in the future, the muscles around the spine appear so normal that the radiologist often cannot tell a surgery was performed!

In summary, the role of exercise, particularly strength and resistance training, in the full recovery from spinal procedures cannot be overstated. But endoscopic procedures hold great promise in offering outpatient, ultra-minimally invasive and minimally disruptive options to solve spinal problems. 

I am proud to bring these technologies to our local communities here in northwest Indiana. Whether you are in Munster, Hobart, Valparaiso, or Chicago, know that an outpatient endoscopic spinal procedure may be your best option.

To your good health and well-being,

Dr Shukairy.