A local hospital is using a new technique in outpatient care for patients undergoing endoscopic spine surgery, NBC Chicago’s Lauren Petty reports.
After recovering from his first spine surgery, Bennet Wang, 64, was told he needed another one.
“Less than a year later, I was told they had to clean up the laminectomy and now I have a bulging disc,” said Wang.
The Chicago man decided to get a second opinion with Dr. Kern Singh, director of spine surgery at Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH. Singh is performing endoscopic spine surgery in an outpatient procedure.
“I would say most patients are skeptical. They actually don't believe it. But the benefit is there's no muscle cutting. There's almost no narcotics afterwards,” Singh said.
During the surgery, Singh makes two small incisions, one for his tools, another for a camera.
“The camera allows us to see, allows me to see, in 4k high definition. So not only is it, you know, smaller incisions and there's no muscle cutting, but the resolution to see the nerve roots and all the other disk spaces is amplified,” Singh said.
Compared to the inches-long scar Wang has from his first traditional spine surgery, he now has two small marks on his back from this newer approach.
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“You get a small incision, faster recovery and less pain. The pain I had to be awakened every three hours after the traditional approach. But here, my quality of life was much better. I could sleep at night,” Wang said.
Common conditions including sciatica, bulging disks, spinal stenonis, even failed back surgery — Dr. Singh says all of those patients are candidates who may be eligible for endoscopic spine surgery.
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“With this procedure, you can address all types of pathology and people can be back to work the next morning,” Singh said.
Wang had his endoscopic procedure in December. After months of physical therapy, he was able to check an item off his bucket list — going to the Masters golf tournament in April with his wife.
“I walked Augusta National, 10 miles total. We checked our watches,” Wang said.
“I think that's the reason that we go into what we do in spine surgery and then it's even more so when you're pushing the envelope and you can see a direct benefit to patients,” Singh said.
