At Riverside, our highly trained neurosurgeons perform open and minimally invasive surgeries as well as non-invasive radiosurgery to treat spine conditions with the fewest side effects as possible. These procedures use varying surgical techniques designed to alleviate pressure on the nerves in an attempt to reduce pain in the patient’s back, neck or limbs.
Some of our most frequent spine procedures include:
Anterior Discectomy and Fusion
This surgical procedure is used to reach the cervical spine via a small incision in the front of the neck. The intervertebral disc is removed and replaced with a small plug of bone, which in time will fuse the vertebrae.
Lumbar Laminectomy
This surgical procedure is designed to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or spinal nerve by widening the spinal canal. During a lumbar laminectomy, a small section of the bony roof of the spine, the lamina, is removed to create more space for the nerves. A surgeon may perform a lumbar laminectomy with or without fusing vertebrae (lumbar spinal fusion) or removing part of a disc (lumbar microdiscectomy).
Lumbar Microdiscectomy
During this surgical procedure, a small portion of the bone over the nerve root and/or disc material from under the nerve root is removed to relieve the neural impingement that is causing leg pain and provide more room for the nerve to heal. Only the portions of the disc material contributing to leg pain are removed, not the entire disc.
Mazor X™ Stealth Edition Robotic-Guided Spine Surgery
Certain patients requiring spinal surgeries related to degenerative, postural and curvature spinal conditions may be candidates for Mazor X™ Stealth Robotic-Guided surgery. Read more about this robotic-guided spinal surgery.
Varian Edge™ Radiosurgery
Utilizing a “knifeless surgery” approach, patients with tumors, lesions and other abnormalities in specific parts of the body, including the spine, spinal cord and neck, are able to be treated with precisely focused radiation. Known as radiosurgery, this is done in an outpatient setting where the neurosurgeon, the radiation oncologist and the medical physicists work together to treat the patient. This is done in the Chesapeake Regional, Riverside and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center which is located on the campus of Riverside Regional Medical Center.