Endoscopic spine surgery in Faisalabad

Is endoscopic spine surgery safe, or will I be paralysed?

This is the question most families ask first, so it belongs first. Paralysis after a routine endoscopic discectomy for a slipped disc is uncommon. The working tube is about the width of a pen, the surgeon watches the nerve live on a screen at high magnification, and the operation is often done with you awake or lightly sedated, so you can say if something touches the nerve.

Safe does not mean risk free. Any spine operation carries a small chance of bleeding, infection, a dural tear, and an incomplete result. The most common complaint afterwards is burning or tingling in the leg from nerve irritation, which usually settles over weeks. A disc can herniate again at the same level after any type of disc surgery. Occasionally the surgeon has to convert to open surgery, and that should be written on your consent form before you sign it.

The biggest risk in spine surgery is not the instrument. It is having the wrong operation for the wrong reason. Your diagnosis, your general health, and whether the operation actually fits your scan decide your personal level of risk far more than the technique does.

Do I really need disc surgery, or will my kamar dard settle on its own?

Most back pain is not surgical. If your pain sits in the lower back and travels nowhere, endoscopic spine surgery is usually the wrong answer. The same is true if your MRI is normal or shows only the mild wear expected at your age. In those cases an operation will not give you back the life you want, and you will have taken the risk for nothing.

Many families in Punjab try a hakeem, a massage or a pehlwan before they see a surgeon. Gentle treatment and time do help a lot of people, and there is no shame in trying. Two cautions. Forceful massage or spinal manipulation on a nerve that is already compressed can make leg pain and weakness worse. And do not let months pass with a foot that is getting weaker.

Come in immediately, without waiting six weeks, if you have weakness in the foot or ankle, numbness around the groin or back passage, or trouble passing or controlling urine. Those are red flags and they change the timeline completely.

Am I a candidate for endoscopic discectomy?

You are likely a candidate when two things line up. First, taang mein dard that is worse than your back pain, running down one leg in a clear line, often below the knee, made worse by sitting, coughing or straining. Second, an MRI that shows a disc or overgrown bone pressing on a nerve in exactly the place that would explain that leg pain.

A scan on its own never decides. Plenty of people walk around with a bulge on their MRI and no pain at all. The level on the film has to match the leg that hurts and the part of the foot that feels numb. If it does not match, the answer is more assessment, not a quicker operation.

The usual wait before surgery is about six weeks of honest non-surgical treatment, unless there are red flags. Age is rarely the deciding factor. A fit seventy year old with one compressed nerve can be a better candidate than a thirty year old with aching at four levels and a scan that explains nothing.

What is durbeen se operation, and what happens on the day?

Durbeen se operation is what most patients call this. A rigid tube about the width of a pencil, with a camera and light at its tip, is passed through a small opening in the skin down to the spine, alongside the nerve. Instruments travel down a working channel inside the same tube. Saline flows continuously to keep the view clear.

Your back muscles are pushed aside rather than cut off the bone. Bone and ligament are trimmed only where the nerve is actually being squeezed. One thing worth understanding before you sit in any clinic: the whole disc is not removed. When people say the doctor will nikal dega saara disc, that is not what happens. Only the escaped piece sitting on the nerve comes out.

Anaesthesia is often local or spinal with sedation, and general anaesthesia in selected cases. Most single level cases are a day case or one night. You will usually be walked to the bathroom within four to six hours. Bring one family member who can carry the bag and listen to the discharge instructions, because you will not remember all of them.

How long is recovery after endoscopic disc surgery?

Many patients notice the leg pain has already changed before they leave hospital, because the pressure on the nerve has been lifted. What you feel instead is soreness around a wound smaller than your fingernail, and a bruised, stiff feeling in the muscle. That is expected.

Desk or shop work returns for most people in about one to two weeks. Driving and normal walking distances by about four weeks. Heavy lifting and physical labour after six to twelve weeks, and only when your surgeon clears you. In week one, walk little and often, ten minutes five or six times a day, and sit for twenty to thirty minutes at a time rather than for hours.

If your work is loading, masonry, farming or driving a rickshaw all day, say so before surgery. That changes the recovery plan and the return-to-work date more than the operation itself does.

What if endoscopic surgery is not the right operation for my scan?

Endoscopic discectomy is one tool, not the answer to every spine problem. It suits a contained, single-level disc pressing on one nerve. Microdiscectomy, which uses an operating microscope through an incision of a few centimetres, suits large, migrated or calcified fragments and repeat surgery. It has been the standard for decades and remains the second procedure in this practice. For many discs the two give the same end result.

If your spine is unstable, or the problem is at several levels, neither of these is the right operation and a different plan is discussed with you. And if your scan shows nothing that explains your symptoms, the honest answer is that you do not need disc surgery at all.

You should leave the consultation knowing which operation is being proposed for you, why that one and not the other, and what happens if you choose to wait.

What does endoscopic spine surgery cost in Faisalabad?

Cost varies with the hospital, the number of levels, the type of anaesthesia, how long you stay, and whether any implants are needed. Nobody can quote you a reliable figure over the phone before seeing your MRI.

Always ask for a written quote in PKR before you agree to anything. Ask that it covers the surgeon's fee, anaesthesia, theatre and hospital stay, implants if any are used, and follow-up visits. Ask what is not included, and ask what happens to the cost if you need to stay an extra night. A written quote protects you and it protects the hospital.

If your family is arranging the money, bring the person who makes that decision to the consultation. It is far easier to answer their questions in the room than to relay the answers afterwards.

How do I arrange a review with Dr. M. Abdur Rehman?

People searching for the best endoscopic spine surgeon in Faisalabad usually want one thing: someone who will look at their own scan and give a straight answer.

Send a message through this site with a short note on what hurts, how long it has been going on, and what treatment you have already tried. Dr. M. Abdur Rehman is a consultant neurosurgeon at Mujahid Hospital, Faisalabad.

Bring your MRI films and the written report, not just photos of the screen on your phone. Bring any X-rays, a list of every medicine you take including blood thinners and anything herbal, and reports of your sugar and blood pressure if you have them. Bring one family member.

If you are travelling in from Jhang, Chiniot, Toba Tek Singh, Sargodha or further, say so when you book, so the consultation and any scans can be arranged in as few trips as possible. And be prepared to hear that you do not need an operation. That is a good outcome, not a wasted journey.

Questions patients ask about this

Is durbeen se operation the same as laser treatment for a slip disc?

Can I go home the same day if I live in Jhang or Sargodha?

Can the disc come out again after endoscopic discectomy?

Will I be put fully under for endoscopic disc surgery?

My family wants me to try massage first. Should I?

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