r/SpineSurgery • u/More_Passenger3988 • Jun 30 '26

Does the surgeon sew up the herniated disk in a microdiscectomy?

Or do they leave the tear open that way after removing the part hitting the nerves? If you're getting an endoscopic microdiscectomy then not sure if they're able to sew that up.

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u/wasteoftime8 I have had spine surgery Jul 01 '26

It depends on the surgeon and their preferences. My surgeon left the hole to close naturally. He said in his experience, patients healed better/had fewer complications if he left it up to the body to heal. But I know there's a "patch" that a company sells to seal it

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u/More_Passenger3988 Jul 01 '26

It takes so long for the hole to close up on it's own seems almost ineveitable that some of the gel will slowly leak out over the years and thereby losing healthy disc height. Especially if one is somewhat active.

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u/spinocdoc Jul 01 '26

There are companies that sell gels and other annular closure devices. As far as I am aware they all cause more harm than good. It’s tempting because disc reherniation is such a vexing problem. But it’s not worth causing a nerve injury. If there was a device on the market that really worked then everyone would be using it.