Spinal surgery is not as scary as you think.

The Department of Medicine released a statistical report of 8,763 spondylosis patients, who have tended to rise every year since 2011. There were 810 patients undergoing spine surgery. S. Spine and Nerve Specialist Hospital found that more than 10,000 patients have been treated since 2018, and more than 5,000 cases received surgery.
Spondylosis disease begins at about 25 years of age and gets worse with age. Most people begin to have the problem between the ages of 35 and 50. Spondylosis is most commonly found in the lumbar spine at L4-L5.
By asking a spine specialist doctor, the cause of the disease is from the past, when humans were four-footed animals and evolved until humans started standing on two legs. Originally, the spine used to be horizontal and then became vertical, so it causes pressure between the joints of the spine with an intervertebral disc as a weight-bearing support, similar to car shock absorbers. As a result, the spine must bear pressure several times more than in the past. This is the reason why the spine is easily deteriorated. There are two types of characteristics of a herniated disc, as follows:
1. The bone deteriorates and moves out of line (spondylolisthesis) until the bone presses on the nerve.
2. The bone deteriorates and puts pressure on the intervertebral disc. This causes the intervertebral disc to press on the spinal nerves, spondylolisthesis, herniated disc.

Bone Degeneration Factors Causing Herniated Disc

According to the results of a survey conducted in 2009 by the National Statistical Office, of 1,000 students and working-age people aged 15–59, 309 respondents have back pain caused by improper posture, such as bending, looking up, standing, lifting heavy objects, twisting, constantly bending, and sitting for long periods of time. These behaviors are accelerators that cause premature deterioration of the spine.
In addition, there are other behaviors causing deterioration of the spine, including spine deterioration with age, eating high-fat food, and a lack of exercise. This causes obesity, which causes the spine to gain weight, causing back pain. Moreover, smokers will have a chronic cough that affects the spinal disc, causing the bones to overlap the nerves.

Spinal surgery is easier than you think.

When patients find themselves with pain in the neck or back, such as back pain down to leg pain, neck pain down to arm pain, numbness or weakness. Some people have headaches similar to migraines. These symptoms are a warning sign of spondylosis caused by bone on the nerves. If you are going to undergo surgical treatment, you must meet the following criteria:

1. Have taken medicine and undergone physical therapy for more than 6 weeks, but the symptoms have not improved or the patients cannot return to their normal daily lives.
2. Be unable to stand the pain.
3. The leg muscles are atrophying, or the arms or legs are so weak that they cannot hold items. Patients cannot use their arms or legs as normal or cannot walk.
4. Loss of control over excretion.

• Endoscopes are the same, but different cameras are used.

Currently, spinal surgery is not scary. Modern treatment techniques have developed innovations from open spinal surgery to endoscopic hole-making . This technique uses a device that has an endoscopic decompression lens attached to the end of the endoscope, which is like an eye into the patient. The doctor can see the abnormalities clearly and accurately and choose to cut off only the part that causes problems without cutting off the good part of the muscle. This makes a small wound, is less painful, safe, and quicker to recover. MIS-Spine is easy for the patient because the patient only stays for one night in the hospital and can then return to normal life. The specialist doctor will diagnose and point out the lesion with X-ray and MRI results and then plan the treatment with the patient correctly, precisely, and safely.
Therefore, this treatment is popular among patients who want to return to their normal lifestyle quickly, for example, going back to life with family and loved ones or doing what they like and what they want to do without being a burden to those close to them.

References:

1. Department of Medicine, Ministry of Health. 2011 Disease Statistical Report, Bangkok: Information and Communication Technology Center, Department of Medicine, Ministry of Public Health; 2011.
2. Office of Policy and Strategy, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health. 2012 Summary of Sickness Reports. Office of Printing Affairs. Veterans Welfare Organization under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King, 2013.