According to Center for Disease control, Nearly 2.4 million Americans suffer from chronic back pain. The cost to treat back pain directly or indirectly costs approximately $75 billion dollars. American workers suffer from back pain next only to flu, which is debilitating and results in loss of work and income.

Emotional and physical stress is experienced by an individual suffering from chronic back pain. It’s the type of pain that can last for a lifetime, if surgical intervention is recommended by trained physicians. Pain killers, analgesics, and steroidal applications just help in suppressing the symptoms of this chronic condition. Laser laminectomy is the latest and most advanced procedure used to reduce the pain of chronic back pain sufferers. Laminectomy is a procedure which is performed on the vertebra which results in either a partial or complete removal of the lamina. Lamina is the wing like structure / part of the vertebra. Back bone is also called vertebrae in medical terms. The spinal cord traverses through the vertebra.

A condition when patients suffer from severe pack pain is called spinal stenosis. It’s a condition where the affected nerves that are situated around the spinal column are compressed. It can be caused by injury, aging or a tumor. This procedure was pioneered by Victor Alexander Haden Horsley in 1887. During this procedure a complete or partial removal or shaping of the spinal disc is attempted to treat herniated disc.

The most commonly observed symptom of patients is chronic low back pain which further leads to immobility and feeling of anguish. The current method of treating the low lumbar back pain caused by herniated discs is by surgery or use of pain killers. An invasive procedure is recommended in order to prevent suffering and emotional stress. The procedure is done under general anesthesia. The patient first needs to be admitted to a hospital and a small incision is made at the back under anesthesia to perform laminectomy.

An alternate method of treatment is laser laminectomy. “Slipped disc” in medical terms is Herniated disc. Herniation disc occurs when the spinal nerves are affected by the bulging inter vertebral disc. This results in pain on the left side of the lower back. The aim of surgical laminectomy is to try to relieve the pressure put on the nerves that surround the spinal column; this once reduced relives the pain and allows for physical reduction of the protruding lamina. Patients who have received such surgery need a long recovery phase after the surgery. This entails pain medication, physical therapy and exercise during this period.

Laser laminectomy is a novel and minimally invasive procedure and approach to treating patients suffering from back pain. This condition of Back pain is ancient and can be traced back to ancient Egyptians and Greek times.

Laser laminectomy uses a laser beam to remove part of the nerve or lamina to relive pain in the back. Laser laminectomy can attempt this procedure for herniated discs which is minimally invasive. In surgical laminectomy the patient is put under Anastasia before the procedure is performed. The surgical option is invasive and expensive, has the risk for recurring back pain which may also latter affect the neck.

Treatment for back pain is complicated, costly and chronic. These three C’s, plague Americans, especially the workforce in software research and development. American geriatric population is also affected by chronic back pain and alternative like laser laminectomy needs to be considered as potential treatments.