6145 N Northwest Hwy
Zip Procedure
- Chronic Back Pain
Minimally Invasive Procedure to Treat Chronic Low Back Pain
Chronic back pain is something many people live with every day. Pain can make simple routines seem impossible and have a substantial impact on everyday life. Bone strength, muscle elasticity, and tone tend to decrease with age, causing the vertebral discs to lose fluid and flexibility, which reduces their ability to cushion the vertebrae. If the spine becomes overly strained or compressed, a disc may bulge outward or rupture, putting pressure on one of the more than 50 nerves rooted in the spinal cord, resulting in increased and often severe back pain.
Schedule Your Appointment With Our Pain Specialist Dr. Michael Rock
Do you have degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, trauma or a spinal tumor?
Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) is a medical condition in which there are anatomic changes and a loss of function of varying degrees of one or more intervertebral discs of the spine, of sufficient magnitude as to cause symptoms.
The root cause is thought to be the loss of soluble proteins within the fluid contained in the disc resulting in a reduction of oncotic pressure, which, in turn, causes a loss of fluid volume. Normal downward forces cause the affected disc to lose height, and the distance between vertebrae is reduced. The annulus fibrosus, the rigid outer shell of a disc, also weakens. This loss of height causes laxity of the longitudinal ligaments, which may allow anterior, posterior, or lateral shifting of the vertebral bodies, causing facet joint malalignment and arthritis, scoliosis, cervical hyperlordosis, thoracic hyperkyphosis, lumbar hyperlordosis, narrowing of the space available for the spinal tract within the vertebra, or narrowing of the space through which a spinal nerve exits, inflammation and impingement of a spinal nerve, causing radiculopathy.
- Procedure
The Aurora ZIP® Procedure
The proprietary Aurora ZIP ONE-STEP™ locking mechanism eliminates the use of a set screw. Each ZIP® LP implant features a large barrel designed for ZIP GRAFT™ or other bone material. The ZIP® LP is designed in various sizes to accommodate variations in patient anatomy. The ZIP® LP is designed with a plate width of 3.5mm.
The surgery is done through a minimally invasive incision in the back of the patient and the physician dissects tissue and muscle off spinous processes. After completing site preparation the doctor places the ZIP implant on the spine and ratchets the two sides of the implant together for a full closure.
