Charity - Introduction
The scope, application and experience with advanced "Open" and "Keyhole" spinal surgery is increasing every day. As the technical complexity increases so there is an increasing need for greater specialism in the treatment of degenerative disc disease. As the benefits of keyhole techniques are demonstrated so these techniques will be used more widely and with more appropriate inclusion criteria.
The perceived advantages of "Keyhole" surgery centre on the sparing approach with minimal harm to the muscular, ligamentous and peridural structures and early mobilisation. This holds the promise of improved clinical outcome for discectomy, sequestrectomy, lateral recess stenosis, peridural scarring and disc replacement. As these techniques are refined so the need for conventional intervention such as fusion and conventional discectomy and undercutting will be reduced.
By the same token the art of advanced conventional surgery has progressed apace with minimisation of existing open microdiscectomy techniques and the exciting perfection of instrumented solid and "soft" fusions, disc replacement and the use of scar inhibitors. This progress offers the prospect of improved results from current techniques and their more specific and appropriate application.
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