150 spine surgeries completed

Hyderabad: Dr Sukumar Sura has the distinction of completing 150 transforaminal endoscopic laser spine surgeries since 2012. Dr Sukumar started the advanced procedure in Telangana and AP five years ago. Transforaminal Endoscopic Laser Spine Surgery is a novel technique to address the ubiquitous lumbar disc disease.

The first Endoscopic Laser Spine Surgery Centre in south India was started in Star Hospitals. The advantages of such a surgery are many such as there are no sutures, can be performed under local anaesthesia, no bone is sacrificed, elderly people can go for the surgery.

The latest method is a very minimally invasive procedure called ‘Transforaminal Endoscopic Laser Spine Surgery’, which entails a 4-6 mm incision in the flank. The offending disc material is removed through an endoscope, special instruments like LASER (Holmium-YAG) and Drills are used. LASER also helps in increase the foraminal diameter and relieves the nerve compression and avoids spinal fixation. The entire procedure is done under local anaesthesia.

For the first time in south India, Transforaminal Endoscopic Holmium-YAG Laser Spine Surgery program was started by Dr. Sukumar Sura at STAR Hospitals. Recently, Dr. Sura and his team in association with STAR Hospitals have conducted an International Endoscopic Lumbar Spine Surgery conference, which was attended by over 250 delegates from across the world.