Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgeries More Beneficial to Patients

Spine surgeries are evolving from traditional operating room procedures tominimally invasive treatments that are performed in outpatient facilitiesand ambulatory service centers, an orthopedic surgeon said.

Outpatient spine surgical rates currently range between 10 percent and 15 percent, according to data supplied by Kevin Scott, M.D., surgical and medical director of the Laser Spine Institute, a spinal surgery facility based in Tampa, Fla. The institute performs various procedures for the treatment of spinal conditions such as sciatica, pinched nerves, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, foraminal stenosis, arthritis, herniated discs and bone spurs.

Scott’s data showed that outpatient treatment of spinal conditions will either be as common as or more common than inpatient procedures by 2015.

Scott delivered the closing keynote address at the fourth annualOrthopedic Design & TechnologyConference in Fort Wayne, Ind. He discussed his experiences as a surgeon with the U.S. Army, explaining how advances in orthopedic device technology helped him treat injuries to soldiers and children in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

While minimally invasive outpatient surgery is less traumatic to tissue and minimizes both blood loss and complications, skepticism remains about such procedures, Scott said. Such skepticism is fueled by factors suchas surgical biases, misconceptions about the preferences of patients, the risk involved, and hospital/payer influence.

Reimbursement issues also contribute to the skepticism. “The insurance companies don’t want to deal with our laser for some reason,” Scott said. “They want to pay for fusion. We, as surgeons, have to show themhow it works. We have to show them the studies and how it helps people. We will overcome that.”