Singapore Medicine - Singapore Doctors Use Hi-Tech Implant to Add Space to Narrowed Spi...(ce between them. Specially-designed meta...)

Unlike a laminectomy, In-Space does not involve the removal of any bone and damaging of any muscles, thus ensuring that the stability of the spine is not compromised in any way.

Since it is a minimally-invasive procedure, patients will not have to tolerate much pain, excessive bleeding, a long hospital stay, and invariably, enjoy a quicker return to work. Surgery for a single level of vertebrae with a traditional laminectomy would take approximately between two and three hours while the In-Space procedure takes just under an hour to complete.

Dr Razmi Rahmat, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at ParkwayHealth's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, is one of a few surgeons in Asia trained to do the procedure, the first of which was carried out in August 2008.

"The most important thing is that this procedure is not done in the spinal canal, so the risk of nerve damage is negligible. There is no direct manipulation of the nerves. In fact, besides doing it accurately under image guidance, we are working very far away from the danger zones," maintains Dr Razmi.    

The suitable patients are usually those between 40 and 70 years of age displaying necessary lumbar spinal stenosis symptoms. Still, not everyone can present as an ideal candidate for In-Space. While leg and buttock pain is a common symptom, the patient needs to feel relief the moment he or she sits down.

Dr Razmi explains, "This is a sign that the degeneration is not severe and is still in an ea
'/>"/>