Kern Singh, MD, lauded the benefits of endoscopic spine surgery, which he typically performs as an awake outpatient procedure at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago.
"This is truly the next generation of spine surgery," Dr. Singh said in a Jan. 27 news release. "I've been performing minimally invasive spine surgery for 13 years and now with the endoscopic procedure, my patients are out of the surgery center in usually half the time."
In addition to shorter surgery times, other benefits include no bleeding, no opioids after surgery, no general anesthesia and quicker recovery times, according to the report.
Awake endoscopic procedures avoid intubation, protecting staff from exposure to respiratory secretions directly from the lung — a significant advantage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many surgeons believe endoscopic procedures will spike in adoption as outpatient migration of spine surgeries continues to accelerate.
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