ABC

Easing that Pain in Your Back without Undergoing a Major Operation

HEALTHY LIVING — About 400,000 Americans may be getting highly invasive back surgery unnecessarily.

A local doctor says he’s found great success taking care of ruptured disks through a tiny incision.

Dr. Ditsworth of the Beverly Hills Doctors Surgery Center performs a minimally invasive procedure called Outpatient Non-traumatic Discectomy. It is an outpatient surgical procedure to remove herniated disc material. Instead of cutting the back open, Dr. Ditsworth is able to remove the excess tissue through a tiny opening.

Dr. Ditsworth says patients typically walk out of the hospital the same day. Most herniated disk patients can benefit from this procedure.

Dr. Ditsworth says he has done thousands of patients with higher than a 90 percent success rate. His findings are published in the “Surgical Neurology.”