Facet Syndrome — Facetectomy or Laminectomy: treatment in the Best Hospitals in the World
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Department of Spinal Surgery
The Department of Spinal Surgery annually treats more than 740 patients with facet syndrome. To improve the condition of the patients, doctors perform endoscopic resection of the facet joints or laminectomy. The surgery involves the use of a three-dimensional O-Arm x-ray system, which protects the spinal cord. The department is headed by Dr. med. A Bitter, who specializes in microsurgical spinal interventions.
Department of Spinal Surgery
The Department of Spinal Surgery at the Vivantes Auguste-Victoria Hospital all diseases of the spine - both conservatively and operatively. Patients with herniated intervertebral discs, displacement of vertebrae, stenosis of the spinal canal or back pain are treated here. In addition, specialists of the department have a unique experience in the field of complex reconstructive and revision surgeries, which are conducted to continue or correct the previous surgical treatment.
Department of Spinal Surgery
The Department of Spinal Surgery offers the full range of effective treatment methods in the area of its specialization. A highly qualified team of doctors is at the service of the department's patients, who have in their arsenal advanced conservative and surgical treatment methods for pathological changes in the spine. Spinal surgical procedures are performed in modern operating rooms, the technical equipment of which allows spinal surgeons to perfectly perform both major open surgery and sparing interventions: minimally invasive, endoscopic, and microsurgical. Surgical treatment is complemented by a carefully planned course of physiotherapy. This includes procedures such as therapeutic exercises, manual therapy, massage, osteopathic treatment, etc. The department's team of doctors consists of 10 highly qualified specialists who, together with experienced nursing staff, admit more than 1,300 inpatients annually. The medical facility is certified by the German Society for Spine Surgery (DWG) as a level II specialized center. The department's medical team makes every effort to provide each patient with optimal treatment in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery offers all the possibilities of modern surgical treatment for diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system in patients of all ages. More than 6,000 surgical procedures are performed annually in the department's high-tech operating rooms. Both planned and emergency neurosurgical procedures are performed here. The department's surgical team focuses on patients with cerebrovascular diseases, brain and skull base tumors, spine and spinal cord diseases, cerebrospinal fluid circulation disorders, and pathologies of the peripheral nervous system. The department's team of physicians also has extensive experience in functional neurosurgery: specialists perform deep brain stimulation for movement disorders, spinal cord stimulation for back pain, and vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy. The department works closely with neurologists, radiologists, and nuclear medicine specialists to provide patients with the highest level of comprehensive medical care. The department is recognized as one of the top neurosurgical centers in Germany and beyond, as evidenced by consistently high treatment success rates and numerous quality certifications, including the German Cancer Society (DKG) Certificate, the German Spine Society (DWG) Certificate, and the Leading Medicine Guide Certificate.
Department of Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery
The Department of Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery offers the full range of modern surgical procedures for patients with diseases of the brain, spinal cord, spine, and peripheral nervous system. The department has state-of-the-art equipment, including navigation systems, monitoring devices, surgical microscopes, intraoperative X-ray diagnostic systems, angiography systems, and laser equipment. In addition, a system for minimally invasive stereotactic interventions has been installed in the department's operating room. The department's neurosurgeons use the latest microsurgical and endoscopic techniques in their work. The medical facility is one of only three in Europe to successfully use the VISUALASE™ device for MRI-guided laser ablation to treat epilepsy. This minimally invasive procedure is highly effective and represents a real breakthrough in epilepsy surgery. The department's neurosurgeons always strive to provide the patient with optimal medical care. They talk in detail about each stage of treatment and are happy to answer the patient's questions. Neurologists and specialists in the field of neuroradiology are often involved in the therapeutic process, which guarantees a comprehensive approach to treatment.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery offers the full range of surgical treatment of diseases of the brain, spine, spinal cord and nerves in adults and children. The department keeps pace with new trends in medicine, as well as contributes significantly to their development. Therefore, the most modern diagnostic and therapeutic methods are available here. An individual approach to each clinical case is crucial to ensure optimal treatment results with the preservation of all neurological functions.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery
According to the Focus magazine, the Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery ranks among the top German medical facilities specializing in the surgical treatment of brain tumors! The department offers the full range of diagnostics and surgical treatment of diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. A specially trained team of pediatric neurosurgeons provides treatment for various neurosurgical pathologies in children. During the treatment, the doctors use state-of-the-art equipment, in particular, imaging-guided neuronavigation, functional imaging (fMRI), intraoperative mapping, intraoperative videoangiography, etc.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery offers modern diagnostics and effective treatment of the full range of diseases, injuries, inflammatory processes, tumors and malformations of the brain, spinal cord and their meninges, as well as spinal diseases. Spinal surgery is performed in collaboration with doctors from the Department of Adult and Pediatric Traumatology, Orthopedic Surgery. The department admits adults and children with malformations of the nervous system, brain and spinal cord tumors, drug-resistant epilepsy and other diseases. As one of the largest medical facilities of this kind in Germany, the department's doctors annually perform more than 2,500 surgical interventions on the brain and spinal cord, peripheral nerve endings. The department's specialists also perform over 400 spinal surgical procedures annually. To achieve high success rates of the surgical treatment, doctors use the very latest equipment, including neuronavigation systems. Thanks to this, surgeons not only successfully eliminate the pathology, but also guarantee the patient maximum safety. The department has 78 beds, including 14 beds in the Intensive Care Unit. The priority goal of the department's medical team is to provide high-quality treatment focused on the patient's needs.
Department of Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery
The Department of Neurosurgery and Spinal Surgery provides top-class medical care for patients with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems. The medical facility performs surgery of any complexity on the brain, spinal cord, spine, and peripheral nerves. The department is the largest healthcare facility of this kind in Germany and has a team of highly professional neurosurgeons with long clinical experience. The department's specialists focus on patients with brain tumors (gliomas, meningiomas, and brain metastases), neurovascular diseases (aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and dural arteriovenous fistulas), and traumatic brain injuries. Spinal surgeons operate on patients with herniated discs, spinal canal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, spondylodiscitis, spinal fractures, and spinal tumors. The department extensively uses minimally invasive surgical techniques that allow for good therapeutic results with high safety in surgical manipulations. The medical facility has two hybrid operating rooms with state-of-the-art equipment, including the Zeego® intraoperative robotic angiography system and the intraoperative Brainsuite® MRI.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Orthopedics
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Orthopedics is the center of maximum orthopedic care and offers the diagnostics and treatment of all diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal system. Along with the full range of modern operative and conservative orthopedics, the department specializes in hip and knee replacement surgery using the minimally invasive methods, replacement/revision of prostheses, orthopaedic oncology, foot surgery and patella problems in the patella.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Orthopedics, Trauma Surgery, Foot Surgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Orthopedics, Trauma Surgery, Foot Surgery offers the full range of diagnostics, conservative and surgical treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. The department is a certified Endoprosthetics Center – more than 1,000 primary joint replacement surgeries are performed here annually. The surgeons of the Endoprosthetics Center also specialize in particularly complex clinical cases and revision procedures for the replacement of previously implanted artificial joints. In addition, the department has the status of the interregional Trauma Center certified in accordance with the standards of the German Trauma Society. The department has also been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the German Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (DAF) in the field of foot surgery. A separate area of clinical activity is the treatment of diseases, injuries and congenital malformations of the musculoskeletal system in children. Depending on the severity of the clinical case, both conservative and surgical techniques are used in the treatment of orthopedic pathologies in children. The department's medical team prefers sparing low-traumatic surgery, while open operations are performed only if other therapeutic options are ineffective.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery provides a full range of services in its areas of expertise. The department's doctors operate on patients with brain and spinal cord tumors, central nervous system malformations, epilepsy, traumatic brain injuries, degenerative disc diseases, spinal stenosis, spinal cord injuries, and peripheral nervous system pathologies. Neurosurgeons specialize in treating patients of all ages, including children and adolescents. Pediatricians, pediatric oncologists, radiologists, and neuroradiologists are involved in the treatment of young patients. Surgical procedures to treat pathologies of the nervous system are performed by highly qualified surgeons with extensive clinical experience. The physicians use state-of-the-art equipment in their work: intraoperative imaging systems, neuronavigation devices, and fluorescence imaging. Advanced technologies are key to effective and safe treatment, as damage to vital anatomical structures of the brain or spinal cord may cause severe neurological deficits. More than 2,000 operations are performed annually in the department's state-of-the-art operating rooms, the majority of which are for brain tumors. The department treats more than 11,000 patients each year. For many years, it has been one of the leading neurosurgical centers in Germany that treats patients from many European countries.
Department of General Orthopedics and Orthopedic Oncology
The Department of General Orthopedics and Orthopedic Oncology offers the full range of conservative and surgical treatment of all musculoskeletal diseases. The department ranks among the largest medical facilities of this kind in Germany, as well as among the specialized authoritative departments for the treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors in the European medical arena. The treatment is carried out both on an outpatient and inpatient basis, including the outpatient operations. In addition to its successful clinical activities, the department is proud of its productive research work, which has given birth to many innovations in orthopedics, for example, the department's specialists have patented the very latest prosthetic systems, particularly in the field of orthopedic oncology.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery offers the full range of modern services in this medical field. The high level of technical equipment in the department allows for the performance of all highly specialized surgical interventions to treat pathologies of the central and peripheral nervous system. The clinical practice mainly focuses on the diagnostics and surgical treatment of diseases, injuries of the brain, spine, spinal cord, intervertebral discs, nerve plexuses, functional neurosurgery and the treatment of neurosurgical pathologies in children.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery offers all modern surgical interventions for the treatment of pathologies of the nervous system. The clinical focuses include the treatment of oncological diseases of the nervous system (neuro-oncology), skull base surgery, vascular neurosurgery, spinal surgery and functional neurosurgery, including the surgical treatment of epilepsy. As a state-of-the-art medical facility, the department has the advanced systems for deep brain stimulation, multimodal neuronavigation devices, intraoperative neuronavigation using CT, ultrasound systems, fluorescence imaging devices and endoscopy equipment. Thus, the department has all the possibilities to ensure effective treatment according to the international standards.
Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery
The Department of Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery, Spinal Surgery offers the full range of services in these fields and specializes in the surgical treatment of diseases of the brain and spinal cord, peripheral nervous system and spine. The important areas of the department's clinical activity also include neuro-oncology, vascular neurosurgery and pediatric neurosurgery. The treatment is provided in four state-of-the-art operating rooms equipped with all the necessary facilities. The department admits about 2,700 inpatients and 4,100 outpatients annually. The team of the department's neurosurgeons is distinguished by high professionalism, and performs many operations using sparing minimally invasive surgical techniques. Navigation systems, intraoperative monitoring devices, 5-ALA fluorescence are successfully used during the surgical treatment. Each operation is carefully planned using advanced navigation devices (under the guidance of CT and MRI scanning). In general, the department's surgeons annually perform more than 4,000 neurosurgical interventions, and therefore they are justifiably proud of their unique clinical experience and treatment results.
Facet syndrome is one of the most common causes of back and neck pain. The condition occurs due to degenerative processes in the facet joints. The cervical and lumbar spines are most commonly affected. The disease often develops in elderly people who have experienced an increased load on the spine during their lives because of sports or physical labor. The disease is characterized by bilateral pain and muscle spasm in the area of the affected segment of the spine. At the same time, radicular symptoms (pain and motor and sensory disorders in the areas innervated by the spinal nerves) are absent, which distinguishes facet syndrome from other degenerative spinal diseases.
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Who may need a facetectomy?
A facetectomy is not a first-choice method of treatment for patients with facet syndrome. Moreover, it is used extremely rarely, only in the most severe cases, when symptoms cannot be relieved in any other way, as well as when the facet syndrome is combined with other degenerative diseases. This is due to the fact that, during a facetectomy and a laminectomy, the treatment is traumatic and requires long-term rehabilitation.
Whenever possible, facet syndrome is treated without surgery. Pain in the lumbar spine can be relieved with medicines, physiotherapy, massage, and therapeutic exercises. Patients are advised to reduce their body weight. Exacerbations of the condition can be treated using blocks with local anesthetics and glucocorticoids. Doctors abroad also offer degenerative therapy that involves the injection of stem cells and platelet-rich plasma into the facet joint. Injections of hyaluronate and glucocorticoids may also be considered.
If conservative therapy does not work, you can undergo some minimally invasive procedures, such as laser or radiofrequency denervation, chemical lysis, or cryoneurolysis. These are procedures for the destruction of nerve endings that conduct pain impulses and cause the development of pain syndrome. They help eliminate pain for up to 12 months. The procedure can then be repeated. Furthermore, by that time, ongoing conservative treatment may yield some results. For example, a person will lose weight or strengthen the spinal muscles with therapeutic exercises, so the symptoms will disappear or significantly decrease even after the denervation has ended.
Treatment works in about 80% of cases. The remaining 20% of those treated do not receive a sufficient analgesic effect. Many of them suffer from concomitant degenerative diseases of the spine. In such cases, doctors resort to facetectomy and laminectomy treatments, which allow them to release the nerve roots of the spinal cord and eliminate symptoms.
How is a facetectomy performed?
A facetectomy is an open operation performed under general anesthesia. The surgical procedure is quite traumatic and requires a long recovery period.
When performing the operation, doctors remove the affected facet joint partially or completely. Patients with concomitant degenerative spinal diseases (disc herniation or spinal stenosis) also undergo a laminectomy of the spine. This is a surgical removal of vertebral arches to relieve pressure on the spinal cord.
After a facetectomy and a laminectomy of the spine, its stability is often disturbed. Diseases of adjacent segments of the spine may develop as well. Doctors perform rigid or dynamic stabilization of the spine to prevent this from happening.
Where to undergo your treatment?
If you suffer from facet syndrome that cannot be treated with conservative therapy and denervation, you can go abroad to have a facetectomy. On the Booking Health website, you can find out prices, compare the cost of treatment at different hospitals, and choose the option that suits you best based on the price. There are a few reasons for you to undergo your treatment abroad. These are the following:
- you will be operated on by neurosurgeons who are considered among the best in the world;
- hospitals abroad use state-of-the-art equipment;
- sparing operations;
- high-quality intraoperative diagnostics, which reduce the risk of complications;
- stabilization of the spine after a facetectomy will help to avoid diseases of adjacent segments of the spine;
- high-quality care after the operation and full-fledged rehabilitation.
You are welcome to make an appointment for your treatment abroad at the best price on the Booking Health website. The cost of operations and other procedures will be lower for you than if you contact the hospital directly. The price will be reduced due to the absence of taxes for foreign patients. The specialists from the Booking Health company will help you arrange your trip. They will help you apply for a visa, translate medical records, and book hotel and airline tickets. The company's employees will also meet you at the airport and take you to the hospital by car. After the completion of your treatment, our specialists will arrange your return transfer.
Authors:
The article was edited by medical experts, board-certified doctors Dr. Nadezhda Ivanisova and Dr. Vadim Zhiliuk. For the treatment of the conditions referred to in the article, you must consult a doctor; the information in the article is not intended for self-medication!
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