Endoscopic Lumbar Foraminotomy

A foraminotomy is a surgical procedure. It enlarges the area around one of the bones in your spinal column. The surgery relieves pressure on compressed nerves.
Your spinal column is made up of a chain of bones called vertebrae. The intervertebral discs sit above and below the flat portion of each vertebra to provide support.
Your spinal column houses your spinal cord and helps protect it from injury. The spinal cord sends sensory information from the body to the brain. The spinal cord also sends commands from the brain to the body. Nerves spread out from the spinal cord, sending and receiving this information. They exit the spinal column through a small hole (intervertebral foramen) that lies between the vertebrae. Sometimes these openings can become too small. When that happens, the compressed nerve can cause symptoms such as pain, tingling in the arms and legs, and weakness. The exact symptoms depends on the location of the compressed nerve along the spinal column. (For example, a compressed nerve in the neck may lead to neck pain and tingling and weakness in the hand and arm.) During your foraminotomy, your surgeon will make a cut (incision) on your back or neck and expose the affected vertebra. Then he or she can surgically widen your intervertebral foramen, removing whatever blockages are present.

Endoscopic Foraminotomy is a true minimally invasive spine procedure that includes the following advantages:

• Minimally Invasive
• Short recovery
• High Success rate
• Local anesthesia
• Minimal or no blood loss
• Preservation of spinal mobility
• Small incision and Minimal scar tissue formation
• Same day surgery with no hospitalization (outpatient procedure)

Endoscopic Discectomy is an outpatient surgical procedure to remove herniated disc material. … The microsurgical attachments can also sometimes be used to push the bulging disc back into place and be used for the removal of disc fragments and small bony spurs. The procedure takes about an hour, on average.

Endoscopic discectomy is the least invasive and effective surgical technique for treating spinal disc herniation patients. With endoscopic spine procedure, surgeons do not need to remove bones and muscles in order to remove herniated discs. Surgeons can see the spine with a camera, smaller than a smart phone camera, through a small surgical port (tube). Large incisions are avoided. The procedure does not traumatize your spine like traditional spine surgeries do. The whole procedure for a disc herniation takes about 30 minutes. The patient goes home in 2-3 hours when the procedure is done in a centre.

“With our discectomy procedure, the patient is brought to the operative room, Under local anaesthesia, a small metal tube is inserted to the spine for direct visualization. This tube serves as a passage for the surgical tools so that the patient’s muscles do not have to be torn or cut. Then, the annular tear, bulging disc, or herniated disc can be found easily under direct visualization looking through the tube.

Under the guidance of the x-ray fluoroscopy and direct visualization, a piece of the herniated disc is pulled out with a grasper. A small disc bulge or annular tear can be treated with a laser, which vaporizes disc material, kills pain nerves inside the disc, and hardens the disc to prevent further leakage of disc material to the surrounding nerves. Finally, the tube is removed and the incision is closed with a stitch or two.

What conditions Can an Endoscopic Discectomy Procedure Treat?

• Disc Bulge
• Herniated Disc
• Disc Tear
• Radiculitis
• Radiculopathy

Our Endoscopic Discectomy is a true minimally invasive spine procedure that includes the following advantages:

• Minimally Invasive
• Short recovery
• High Success rate
• Preservation of spinal mobility
• Local Anesthesia
• Minimal blood loss
• Same-day procedure with no hospitalization (outpatient procedure)
• Small incision and minimal scar tissue formation

During the procedure, the surgeon creates an opening of the lamina above and below the spinal disc to relieve nerve compression. If some of your pain is caused by a herniated disc, then the surgeon can also address this concern at the same time. 


The lamina is part of the bony arch of the vertebra that protects the spinal cord from damage. Almost every one of us will experience spinal degeneration and has spinal stenosis, meaning narrowing of spinal canal from fattening (hypertrophic) spinal ligaments, bone spur (facet arthritis), or bulging or herniations with osteophytes. Spinal canal narrowing will put pressure on the spinal nerves, it can cause back pain that radiates down the lower leg, along with other symptoms.

Patients experiencing such symptoms may be offered this decompressive surgical solution. During laminectomy procedure the surgeon removes part of the lamina, fatty ligaments, bone spurs, and/or herniated disc materials, relieving pressure on the nerves by giving them more space within the spinal column.

• Spinal Stenosis
• Bone Spurs
• Herniated Discs
• Facet Joint Disease

During this procedure the surgeon is also able to see the facet joints that cause spinal nerve compression in neruroforamen or spinal nerve canal and perform foraminotomy to decompress spinal nerve roots. If a herniated disc is a part of pain sources, the surgeon will remove herniated disc (discectomy). With these endoscopic procedures, the patient is free to leave thel center on the same day.

• Advantages of endoscopic lumbar laminotomy surgery include the following:
• Minimally invasive or the currently least invasive
• Short recovery
• High success rates
• Minimal to no blood loss
• Local anesthesia
• Preservation of spinal mobility
• Small incision and minimal scar tissue formation
• Same day procedure with no hospitalization (outpatient procedure)