Patients’ Quick Reference

At ECC, minimally invasive endoscopic techniques are utilized in the treatment of a wide range of spine pathologies, painful disc conditions, and neck, arm, back and leg pain. These spinal disorders, which in the past required large incisions, extensive bone removal and stripping off the paraspinal musculature, are treated using advanced minimally invasive endoscopic techniques. The result is: favorable outcomes, shorter recovery periods and superior consequences with regards to postoperative pain and disability.

Our patients are typically able to resume normal activities sooner and return to their social and professional life earlier. Not only is the outside incision smaller, but the incision in the muscle and fascia is also smaller and bone removal is minimal, thus minimizing injury to muscles, bones, joints, and ligaments. The results achieved mean less strain for the patient! Therefore, patients typically return to their normal activities sooner, easier and fitter.

To prepare for your endoscopic spine surgery, you need to stop taking any non-essential medications -particularly NSAIDs, steroids, herbal remedies and anticoagulants. Low dose aspirin “baby aspirin” should be stopped 7-10 days prior to your scheduled operation. If you are extremely overweight, you may consider planning losing weight prior to your operation. Before deciding your operation, you will be asked to do full blood and cardiac investigations. Following your surgery, discharge from the hospital is typically on the second day.

Commonly, our patient may know of a friend or relative who had spine surgery with suboptimal results. This is at the same time often the reason which strengthens our resolve. To explain this, patients need to know that the spine surgery armamentarium in particular encompasses a very large field of different surgeries and procedures that includes treatments for fractures, spinal cord injuries, spinal tumors, disc herniation, scoliosis, kyphosis, myelopathy, stenosis, and other conditions. This is NOT usually minimally invasive but on the contrary, in many cases the procedure may be “maximally invasive” and may include the insertion of plates and screws into the spine bodies with their associated complications. It is when the right patient has the correct diagnosis and the correct surgery via the correct procedure, and which is done by the practiced surgeon that the anticipated favorable results are generally achieved.

Accurately identifying the source of chronic pain, the so called “pain generator”, is crucial, but this can sometimes be difficult. Almost all structures that form the musculoskeletal system have the potential of producing pain and may be the cause of the patient’s suffering. In an otherwise healthy individual, the source of pain may not be due to a neurogenic origin (like a pinched nerve due to a prolapsed disc or stenotic spinal canal), it may be a joint(s), facet joint(s), ligament(s), muscle(s), tendon(s), or a combination of those. These structures can additionally radiate pain to the chest, neck, arms, buttocks, and legs and all symptoms may feel like numbness, burning, tingling, or a deep unspecific pain – or may have no sensation changes at all. The pain can also be due to completely non-spinal reasons but the patient feels it in the back, due to complicated and intermingling pain pathways in the human body, like uterine and ovarian pain in females or pain associated with menstruation. Magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and computed tomography scans (CTs) can only help but do not always identify the correct source, or sources, of the pain. For these reasons, we thoroughly look for the exact cause of a patient’s pain. This detailed diagnosis is what helps to identify and treat pain efficiently, thus reducing repeated, frustrating attempts at pain management. Your first visit to ECC may feel different than you’ve experienced with other spine specialists. We thoroughly review MRIs, plain X-rays and scans, relevant medical, clinical and personal information – the steps we follow are very organized and deliberate.

Many spine surgeons or spine centers may not offer our kind of procedures or may lack the experience of executing them safely and effectively. Additionally, they may offer one procedure, and thus may only be interested in evaluating whether a patient can undergo this procedure – not whether that procedure is the most appropriate for his/her specific case. Our specialization in spine and spine-related pain results in not only minimally invasive surgery or a small incision size, but it enables the correct identification and thus the correct address to your spine problem and providing the most appropriate recommendation to each individual patient – no two spines are alike!. We are dedicated 100% to treating spine pathology.

We handle the preparation of our patients and execute their endoscopic surgeries and other minimally invasive procedures according to professional disciplines that utilize fixed standards and guidelines. The ECC follows a standard operational procedure (SOP) in terms of management, ethics and functioning actions. In our endoscopic surgeries, we follow a consistent surgical implementation of a standardized endoscopic approach using a consensus-based protocol (CBP). This is intended to achieve our goal by which wrong site, wrong diagnosis, wrong procedure, wrong candidate, surgery can be widely eliminated.

We are generally able to identify the true cause of your pain and correctly treat virtually all spine diseases or disorders and spine-related chronic pain. Personalized pain diagnosis is our approach. Initially, we get to know the specific unique painful problem as exact as possible; then we apply the latest science, procedures or technology in its management. We do not mask your pain with analgesics, repeated medication, steroid injections, or unnecessary treatments; rather we treat its underlying cause.