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90% of patients with back and neck problems will improve
significantly without surgery. However, when non-surgical methods
prove unhelpful, surgery may be your best alternative. The University
of Rochester Spine Center has an expert team of orthopaedic surgeons
who perform a full range of surgical
procedures.
Before surgery, each patient meets with a surgeon to explore
all options, discuss pre-operative and post-operative procedures and
any questions or concerns.
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Diskectomy involves the removal of a portion of a disk to
relieve pressure on a nerve. It can be done as an endoscopic
discectomy (or percutaneous arthroscopic diskectomy), a
microdiscectomy or an open diskectomy. An incision is made, and
the herniated disk and any loose pieces are removed. Ideally, just
the fragment of disk that is pinching the nerve will be removed,
leaving some of the disk intact.
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Laminotomy and laminectomy involve removing a small amount of
the bone over the spinal canal (lamina) to eliminate a source of
compression on the spinal cord or nerve root in any part of the
back. This source of compression may be part of a herniated disk,
vertebra fragment, spinal cord tumor, aneurysm, narrowing of the
spinal canal (spinal stenosis) or rough protrusion of bone called
a bone spur. During a laminotomy just a portion of lamina is
removed to, relieve pressure on a nerve or allow the surgeon access
to a disk that's pressing on a nerve. A laminectomy involves
removal of the entire lamina.
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Foraminotomy and foraminectomy are commonly done to treat
narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis), lateral disk
herniations or facet arthritis. The foramen is the space in the
vertebrae where the nerve roots exit on their path to a specific
tissue or organ. In both surgeries, this opening is expanded
by removing bone and soft tissue to provide more space for the
exiting nerve roots. When surgery involves removing a large amount
of bone and other tissue, it is called a foraminectomy.
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