Spine surgery is traditionally done as “open surgery,” meaning the area being operated on is opened with a long incision to allow the surgeon to view and access the anatomy. In recent years, however, technological advances have allowed more back and neck conditions to be treated with a minimally invasive surgical technique. Dr. Ziauddin Hospital’s leading Surgeon Dr. Imtiaz Hashmi and his team are performing such procedures for their patients here in Karachi. Dr. Hashmi has performed numerous surgeries over his career spanning decades. Over the course of his career, he has observed that the rate of infections was significantly lower for ‘minimally invasive’ surgeries.

“’Minimally invasive’, as the name suggests, is surgery performed through a significantly smaller space.” Explains Dr. Hashmi

“The more open a surgery, the higher the risk of infection, the greater the pain during recovery, and the longer the recovery duration.”

It was at the Dr. Ziauddin Hospital, recently, that Dr. Imtiaz Hashmi performed a highly successful instance of minimally invasive surgery.

A female patient arrived for consultation with severe lower-back pain for 4-5 months. Dr. Imtiaz Hashmi and his team examined the X-rays and concluded that the pain could be relieved by stabilizing the spine and by reducing pressure on the nerve root.

For some procedures, it has now become standard practice to use minimally invasive techniques. But using minimally invasive techniques requires significant skill and training, gained through experience and rigor. Luckily, Dr. Hashmi is well qualified and experienced enough to undertake this type of a procedure; he is Dr. Ziauddin Hospitals Top most leading surgeons and head of department of surgery at Clifton Campus.

This particular surgery is called Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (or TLIF), and is often a preference of skilled surgeons, over more ‘open’ methods. Some of the benefits of TLIF include minimal blood loss during surgery, mitigated infection-risk, quicker recovery, lesser muscle damage, and reduced post-operative pain.

With highly-skilled surgeons like Dr. Hashmi, Dr. Ziauddin Hospitalis at the forefront of medical innovation. The Center is always keen on reducing the invasiveness of surgical procedures as technology advances.