Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

Our experience shows that in most cases, you’re able to go home on the same day. Dr. Branko Skovrlj is the best spine surgeon in the Northeast. As the founder of NU-Spine: The Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Institute in New Jersey, Dr. Skovrlj has spent his career specializing in minimally invasive procedures so that you can have your spine repaired with less hassle and pain.

How Do I Know If I Need Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery?

Set up a consultation with Dr. Skovrlj. In addition to carefully listening to your list of symptoms and doing a thorough physical exam, Dr. Skovrlj uses imaging and other tests to determine the safest and quickest way to get you full relief. Your New Jersey neurosurgeon treats a wide range of conditions with minimally invasive surgical techniques. Symptoms that respond well to minimally invasive surgery include:

• Back pain
• Neck pain
• Lower back pain
• Trouble walking
• Sciatica or shooting pain down one leg
• Tingling in your legs or arms
• Weak muscles in your legs or arms
• Stiffness
• Muscle spasms
• A foot that keeps falling asleep
• Trouble turning your midsection
• Difficulty controlling bowels or bladder

Dr. Skovrlj relies on state-of-the-art techniques and tools to perform minimally invasive surgery on a wide range of common and complicated conditions, including:

• Spinal deformities
• Scoliosis
• Kyphosis in your middle back, lower back or upper back and neck
• Nerve-compressing problems in your lower back, such as stenosis, a pinched nerve, a herniated disc or compression injury
• Diseases, such as lumbar degenerative joint disease and cervical degenerative joint disease
• Spinal sprains and strains
• Spondylosis
• Stress fractures
• Sacroiliac joint disease
• Flat back syndrome

What Kinds of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeries Are There?

Most spinal surgeries can be done in a minimally invasive way to reduce risks and the amount of time needed to fully recover. Some procedures require general anesthesia, while others may be performed in the office with local numbing agents. Your New Jersey spine surgeon is well-versed in a wide range of minimally invasive surgeries including:

• Microdiscectomy: This is a procedure used to remove some or all of a disc or discs that sit between your vertebrae. Damaged discs can be extremely painful and lead to complications such as throbbing neck pain from a cervical slipped disc, inflammation or injury A microdiscectomy is commonly performed on all areas of the spine: cervical, thoracic and lumbar.
• Minimally invasive laminectomy: This procedure is designed to seamlessly remove part of the back of one or more vertebrae to create more space for your nerves and spinal cord. Areas damaged by a compressed nerve benefit from this procedure, which is often used to treat conditions like cervical stenosis and thoracic radiculopathy and many other conditions.
• TLIF: Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion is a minimally invasive procedure used to fuse different parts of the spine with a special graft. It’s commonly used to treat spondylolisthesis, cervical degenerative disc disease and lumbar degenerative disc disease and is much less invasive than more extensive spinal fusions.
• Endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy: This is a procedure primarily used to treat conditions caused by compressed nerves such cervical radiculopathy, thoracic radiculopathy or lumbar radiculopathy.
• Lumbar decompression: This refers to a group of procedures used to decompress lumbar nerves in lumbar stenosis.

These surgeries have a high rate of success in terms of pain relief and getting you back to your usual active self. While your neurosurgeon can also perform other types of spinal surgery, he specializes in minimally invasive procedures, which often produce the most effective results.