Dr. Lee Jong Sun ()
Sudden pain in the lower back is mostly caused by muscle tension or sprain of ligaments, thus medicine, physical therapy and rest usually improve conditions. However, chronic pain in the lower back that occurs repeatedly or lasts more than three months have different causes as well as being in a specific area and are often hard to treat. There are various spinal formations that can cause chronic lower back pain, but among them, those occurring in the intervertebral disc accounts for the most cases, taking up 40%.
Discogenic lower back pain can be caused by herniation of the lumbar disc, visceral disc disease, or degenerative disc disease. When you bend your back to lift things, wash your face, or stay seated for a long time, the pressure inside the intervertebral disc increases, causing pain. Most appear along with degenerative changes in the intervertebral disc, but it can also occur due to trauma such as torsion or impact.
It is difficult to treat intervertebral back pain which does not improve even with active conservative treatment. Although surgery to completely remove the damaged intervertebral disc and fuse the vertebrae or replacing it with an artificial disc is a fundamental treatment, these should be considered the last option. As an alternative, microinvasive procedures have been developed and implemented, the representative among these being radiofrequency coagulation, laser disc decompression, and nucleoplasty.
Transforaminal epiduroscopic laser annuloplasty (TELA), is one of the treatments for disc-related lower back pain at Nasaret International Hospital, which safely accesses the area between the spinal nerve and the intervertebral disc thanks to the surgical instrument being able to bend unlike traditional methods. In addition, the treatment process can be clearly observed using a high-resolution micro-endoscope, enabling accurate and sophisticated treatment. By aiming a precise laser that is lit from the side, only the damaged area is directly, accurately, and precisely treated. The most important thing is that before the procedure, when one touches the specified area, they would feel pain, but after the operation it would disappear, thus providing confidence in the treatment. Nasaret International Hospital’s Spine Center Director Jong Sun Lee (Neurosurgery) said, “TELA does not damage healthy tissues, so it is possible to return to daily life quickly. Moreover, it is an advantage that we do not have to worry about side effects of drugs because we do not depend on steroids or adhesive desalination.”
Nasaret International Hospital’s Spine Center Director Jong Sun Lee (Neurosurgery) was the first in the world to present TELA and its treatment cases at the KOMISS International Symposium. His TELA treatment has been observed by doctors across the globe, including those from Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital in Dubai. He is also noted for his lectures on TELA procedures at the MISS Summit Forum, an international conference for minimally invasive spine surgery.
