MILD is an outpatient medical procedure used to treat leg and low back pain caused by lumbar spinal stenosis. As patients age multiple elements of the spine become arthritic; one specific arthritic change is thickening of the ligamentum flavum, which is a ligament found just behind the spinal canal. The ligamentum flavum, which stands for “yellow ligament”, can become thick and take up space in the canal, crowding the nerve roots, leading to leg and often low back pain symptoms. The MILD procedure attempts to reverse this change by removing arthritic bone spurs and thinning the ligamentum flavum.
What is MILD used for?
MILD is a procedure that helps alleviate pain caused by pinched nerves (neural impingement) from lumbar spinal stenosis. result, physical therapy does not always provide sustained relief.
Who is an appropriate candidate for MILD?
MILD is generally considered an option only after non-surgical options like physical therapy, medications, and epidural steroid injections have failed to provide relief after 8 to 12 weeks of treatment.
Do I have to have general anesthesia for MILD?
MILD does not require general anesthesia, which helps reduce recovery time. In most cases, patients can resume regular activity within 24 hours. In addition to reducing pain, the procedure helps increase patient mobility, specifically standing and walking tolerance.
What are the Benefits of Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression?
The MILD procedure utilizes tiny incisions made in the skin to allow the insertion of small, specialized instruments. An open spine surgery generally requires larger incisions, more anesthesia, longer operating times, longer recovery.
MILD is a low-risk procedure that has two primary benefits. First, it can help decrease the amount of pain that patients are experiencing from pressure on a nerve in the spinal column. Second, being a minimally invasive procedure, the patient recovers more quickly than in open surgery.
Most patients report measurable improvement from pain radiating into the legs after the MILD procedure.
Who is NOT a candidate for the MILD procedure?
Patients who have lumbar spinal stenosis from other causes such as large facet joints or disc bulges without a thick ligamentum flavum are not eligible for the MILD. The treating physician can measure the ligament on MRI or CT.
