Endoscopic surgery is to reach the patient area by opening a small hole to treat the disease that occurs in any part of the body and to move the patient area to a screen using advanced imaging systems, and to perform surgical operation by enlarging the visual field using advanced lens systems. This procedure is also known as closed surgery among the people.
Generally, the less anatomical damage a surgical method is performed, the more successful it is considered. As the surgical openings get smaller, the necessity of performing surgery by enlarging the tissue occurs spontaneously. Both surgical interventions performed with microscopy and endoscopic interventions allow this. Another reason why many people prefer endoscopic intervention, which is a closed method today, is that they can be discharged a few hours after the operation and return to work.
Many factors play a role in deciding whether a patient's hernia is endoscopically removable, such as the height of the intervertebral space, the distance of the hernia, the location and size of the hernia. Therefore, there is no such thing as a successful endoscopic intervention in every hernia.
Basically, the method, which is entered from a place close to the midline in the waist, is mostly applied in the lowest level of hernia. The methods that are entered from the side are more preferred in higher-level hernias.
The endoscopic foraminal approach causes much less anatomical damage than the open method in hernias in or outside the groove, which we call the foramen, where the nerve leaves the spinal canal. Therefore, in these cases, endoscopic intervention performed from the side is a method that should be preferred first.
One disadvantage of endoscopic surgery is that surgery is performed in a two-dimensional environment on a screen. For this reason, surgical intervention with a microscope is still considered the gold standard, as it provides a three-dimensional view in lumbar hernias into the spinal canal.