Manur - Degenerative Disc Disease (Spondylosis)

All you need to know about Degenerative Disc Disease.

What is Spondylosis?

A general term for age-related wear and tear of the spinal discs. Spondylosis is common and worsens with age. This condition is often used to describe degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis) of the spine.

When to Operate?

Most of the spinal disorders are chronic and degenerative diseases are managed non-surgically. Non-surgical options include Physical therapy, home exercises, medication, and often times spinal injections. Physical therapy and lifestyle modifications stand as the primary line of management of degenerative disorders. Surgical indications can be considered when symptoms are not resolved with non-surgical management.

To illustrate, for patients with degenerative disc disease and having correlating symptoms of nerve root compression, surgical management is considered. However, if the symptoms and radiological findings are not correlating, non-surgical management is considered.

Open v/s Minimally invasive surgery!

Open spine surgery involves the complete exposure of the anatomy. In minimally invasive spine surgery, surgical exposure is kept minimal with help of a microscope and navigation, which helps in faster recovery after surgery.

Whether minimally invasive or traditional, the goals are for the long-term benefits; and an overall improvement in symptoms or a halt in degeneration. Ultimately, we want our procedures to result in less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, lower infection rates, and a faster recovery in the weeks following surgery. Minimally invasive surgery typically results in an easier recovery process for patients, however, not every patient or surgical condition is appropriate for minimally invasive surgery.