Surgical Procedure Provides Fast Back Pain Relief

Chronic back pain caused by spinal disc degeneration or herniations can be debilitating, but recovering from an open back surgery can take months. Now, those with disc related pain have a new option: Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF).

Just what is XLIF? It is a minimally invasive back surgery that does not require the patient to be opened up and is being used to treat foraminal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, pseudoarthrosis, spondylolisthesis, minimally invasive disc replacements and recurrent disc herniation.

Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion is not effective for L5-S1, but can be used for anterior lumbar fusion from L1 – L5.

XLIF is performed by entering the side of the body through two small incisions, instead of opening up the back. One incision is directly over the waist and one is behind the first incision. The incisions allow for real-time X-rays of the spine, while new technologies allow for monitoring .

Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion offers many benefits compared to open back surgery. It can be performed in as little as one hour, which means less anesthesia time. It also offers minimal scarring, less cutting and less loss of blood than open back surgery. Patients are usually walking the same day of surgery and are usually able to leave the hospital after one night. Full recovery is around six weeks.




Return to the Social Security Disability SSI Benefits Blog





Prior Posts

Social Security Disability and Medical Evidence
Filing for Disability - Doctors and Documentation
Awarded Social Security Disability Benefits - errors in decisions
Disability Interview for Social Security
Social Security Disability and letters from SSA
Can a SS Disability Claim take five years?
When you apply for social security disability should you send copies of your xrays ?