Endoscopic Foraminotomy

An endoscopic cervical foraminotomy performed by a board certified spine surgeon can provide relief even when other treatments have failed if you suffer from a spinal condition or back pain caused by:

• cervical spine degenerative disease with spinal nerve compression

• failed neck surgery syndrome

• pinched spinal nerve from disc herniation

• bone spurs



If you experience persistent neck pain, shoulder pain, tingling or pain in your arm, numbness or weakness in upper extremities caused by a spinal condition and other treatments have failed, endoscopic cervical foraminotomy may be the solution to your back pain.

Endoscopic cervical foraminotomy is a minimally invasive spine surgery usually performed as an outpatient procedure while the patient is under general anesthesia.

During the procedure, asurgeon inserts a specially designed endoscope, a small tube, into the cervical spine nerve canal. A small piece of enlarged bone (ulcinate) is removed with a micro instrument to open the nerve canal. Herniated disc, bone spurs, and scars in the spinal nerve canal are removed and any degenerative disc is treated with laser.

The laser treatment vaporizes disc material, deadens pain nerves inside the disc, and hardens the disc to prevent leakage to the surrounding nerves. 

Although the procedure has a low incidence of complications, it is strongly recommended that a board certified spinal surgeon perform the spinal surgery. Endoscopic cervical foraminotomy requires only a very small incision and recovery time is short - most patients are up and moving within a few hours of surgery and can quickly get back to life.