Microdiscectomy is a surgical treatment for ruptured or herniated discs of the lumbar spine. When the disc becomes herniated it may compress the nerve tissue, causing weakness, tingling or back and leg pain.

Open discectomy aims to relieve these symptoms by removing part of the herniated disc, the source of pain.  

Surgical procedure: the steps.

• The surgeon will perform a small incision over the spine in the area to be treated.
• To reach the degenerated disc, tissues and muscles need to be removed from the bone, while the surgeon uses a retractor to gain a good visualization of the surgical site.
• In some cases, the surgeon has to perform a laminectomy  to have access to the damaged disc (a small amount of bone and ligaments are removed).  Once this bone and ligament is removed, the surgeon can see, and protect, the spinal nerves.
• The surgeon is now able to remove the part of the disc that protruded and caused pain. Due to the size of the area to be treated, this surgery is done under magnification.