Spine surgeries

If non-surgical treatments haven’t been able to ease your chronic, debilitating back pain stiffness, numbness or tingling, then you may be a candidate for spine surgery. HonorHealth’s team of spine experts, including neurosurgeons, creates personalized surgery plans tailored to meet your individual needs.

Goals of spine surgery

Depending on the type and severity of your spine issue, surgery may be used to:

• Decompress the spinal cord or a nerve root to reduce or eliminate symptoms.
• Stabilize an unstable or painful segment of the spine.
• Reduce a deformity caused by a disease or disorder.
• Treat a spinal cord tumor.
• Minimize damage following a traumatic spine fracture or spinal cord injury.

Minimally invasive spine surgery

HonorHealth surgeons choose minimally invasive surgery whenever possible and appropriate. In comparison to conventional spine surgery that requires cutting through muscles and other structures in the back, minimally invasive surgery uses an endoscope (a thin, flexible tube with a camera attached to the end) that enables doctors to operate through small incisions.

Types of spine surgery

HonorHealth’s neurosurgeons perform virtually all types of spine surgery. Your neurosurgeon will work with you to identify the best procedure and approach for your specific injury or condition.

Among the many types of spine surgery offered at HonorHealth are:

• Discectomy to remove a herniated segment of a disc that’s causing nerve irritation and/or inflammation. Discectomy usually removes the back portion of a vertebra (lamina) to access the affected disc.
• Foraminotomy to surgically widen the portion of the spine where the nerves exit to relieve pressure. Because the procedure can decrease spine stability, surgery may also include spinal fusion.
• Kyphoplasty to insert a sort of medical balloon and inject bone cement. This expands the space around a compressed vertebra. It’s commonly used to treat vertebral compression fractures often associated with osteoporosis.
• Laminectomy to remove a portion of the vertebrae called the lamina, relieving pressure on the spinal cord and/or nerve root compression or pinched nerves.
• Prosthetic disc replacement that eliminates back pain by replacing a damaged disc with an artificial one. It’s a less restrictive alternative to spinal fusion.
• Spinal fusion to join two or more vertebrae and stabilize the back. Spinal fusion is typically used to eliminate pain caused by abnormal vertebral movement.
• Stereotactic spinal radiosurgery to treat and/or provide relief from pain caused by spinal tumors through a type of radiation therapy.
• Vertebroplasty to treat a fractured vertebrae by injecting it with bone cement, offering stability and relief from pain that often accompanies a compression fracture.

Spinal fusion to join two or more vertebrae and stabilize the back. Spinal fusion is typically used to eliminate pain caused by abnormal vertebral movement. HonorHealth is one of two healthcare organizations in Phoenix that offers the latest robotic spine fusion surgery option. If you’re a candidate for this surgery, you may benefit from less time under anesthesia, reduced pain, a shorter hospital stay, minimal recovery time and fewer complications.