Laser Technique Relieves Back Pain Without Surgery
Procedure And Recovery Quick, Painless
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POSTED: 5:28 p.m. EDT October 3, 2003
UPDATED: 5:38 p.m. EDT October 3, 2003
SENECA, S.C. -- People who struggle with chronic back pain usually try everything to ease the discomfort until the only option left is surgery.
But an Oconee County doctor told News 4's medical correspondent Carol Goldsmith how a quick and easy procedure offered in Seneca could bring relief without going under the knife.
Dr. Marion McMillan is an anesthesiologist and pain specialist who performs a new procedure called laser disk decompression.
"I think this is the most significant advance in the treatment of spinal pain since the discovery of the herniated disc," McMillan told Goldsmith.
The procedure has made believers out of patients like Bob Clardy who has suffered with severe back hurt for a couple of years.
"It got bad to where I could not stand or sit or walk a long distance at all," Clardy told Goldsmith.
Clardy faced surgery as a last resort until he decided to try laser disk decompression.
"I immediately felt better," Clardy said.
McMillan explained that the disks are the gel-like area between vertebrae in the back.
When disks are herniated or bulging they can pinch the nerves and that causes pain.
McMillan inserts a hollow needle into the disk to guide the laser to the herniated area.
Several short bursts of the laser then shrink the disk relieving pressure on the nerve.
The whole thing takes about 45 minutes.
"The beauty of this system is that more than one disc can be treated at the same time," McMillan said. "And if the doctor finds a disk that looks suspicious you don't have to wait. That can be treated, too."
People who get the out-patient treatment walk home and full recovery takes just five to seven days, as opposed to one to two months for ordinary disk surgery.
Clardy had the procedure six weeks ago.
Now can even play golf.
And he's not just walking.
A month after the procedure, Clardy ran a 5k race.
According to Clardy, the effects of laser disk decompression last five to eight years.
But he cautions that the procedure's not for everyone.
It won't work for advanced degenerative disk disease where the space is narrowed.
The procedure also won't work for pain from a pinched nerve not caused by a herniated disk.
For more information contact Dr. Marion McMillan's Seneca office at 886-9888.
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