Vol. 5, Issue 2 (2019)

Background and Objective: Herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and chronic back pain are the most prevalent reasons for lumbar spine surgery. In terms of operating time, tissue stress, recuperation, and results, two main surgical approaches-Open Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS)-differ greatly. This research set out to evaluate the relative merits of open and minimally invasive techniques to lumbar spine surgery in terms of clinical effectiveness, complication rates, and time to recovery following surgery.
Material and Methods: This prospective observational study comprised 40 patients diagnosed with lumbar disc disease or spinal stenosis who underwent lumbar spine surgery at a tertiary care facility. This study was conducted at the department of Orthopedics, Madha Medical College and Research Institute, Kovur, Mangadu, Thandalam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India from March 2018 to February 2019. Patients were categorized into two cohorts: Group A (n=20) received minimally invasive lumbar surgery, whereas Group B (n=20) got traditional open lumbar surgery. Preoperative data, operation parameters (surgical duration, hemorrhage), postoperative pain (VAS scores), length of hospital stay, and complications were documented and studied over a 3-month follow-up period.
Results: The intraoperative blood loss of patients in the MIS group was 85±20 ml, which was significantly lower than the intraoperative blood loss of patients in the open surgery group (190±35 ml). The open group had a somewhat shorter mean operational time (120±12 minutes) compared to the MIS group (135±15 minutes). Day 1 postoperative pain scores in the MIS group were 3.1±0.5 on the Visual Analog Scale, which is significantly lower than the open group's score of 5.2±0.7. The MIS group also had a shorter average hospital stay (2.3±0.6 days) compared to the open group (4.1±0.9 days). While not statistically significant, the MIS group did have a decreased rate of complications.
Conclusion: Reduced blood loss, less postoperative discomfort, and shorter hospital stay are only a few of the benefits of minimally invasive lumbar spine surgery compared to the standard open technique. The clinical outcomes are also comparable. Based on these results, MIS procedures should be more widely used for lumbar spine surgery in individuals who are a good candidate.