Neurosurgeon Anders Cohen Pioneers Minimally Invasive Cervical Discectomy

Neurosurgeons like Dr. Anders Cohen are showing everyone the way forward – from medical practitioners to patients themselves. The Chief of Neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Dr. Cohen is a recognized specialist in the most advanced, minimally invasive procedures to treat conditions and diseases of the spine and the nervous system.

A cervical discectomy is a spinal surgical procedure that entails the removal of some or all of an intervertebral disc (the cartilaginous pads between the vertebrae) that is damaged or diseased. Such discs put pressure on spinal nerves in the cervical spine or neck. As neurosurgeons like Anders Cohen explain, patients may experience a certain amount of pain in the neck and/or arms, a lack of coordination and numbness or weakness in the upper extremities, such as arms, fingers and forearms, as a consequence of this condition.

Traditional open spine surgery has been used to deal with such problems successfully in the past. But it has certain drawbacks. In a nutshell, the classic form of spine surgery requires that the muscles from the affected area of the spine be stripped or cut away from it in order for the spine to be exposed for treatment. Such a procedure can be exceedingly risky, may take a lot of time, and can be quite expensive. In addition, patients who undergo such procedures may need some time to recover from them, and may not be productive while recovering.

The minimally invasive cervical discectomy performed by Dr. Anders Cohen is leaps and bounds ahead of the techniques of the past. A very small incision is made in the neck, then the muscles in the neck are separated or dilated through the insertion of tubes. The bone spurs or damaged or diseased disc material causing the problem is removed, while the tubes are removed and tissues are replaced. This is a much quicker, potentially less expensive and considerably less risky procedure than the one it supplants, and is far easier to recover from as well.