Tracey Romero/9-29-2017
Photo: PROLIFT® and Dr. Zeshan Hyder/Courtesy of Life Spine
In an arena of rapid technological advancement, it takes an innovation powerhouse to design products that have the ability to disrupt the spine industry. Life Spine, a manufacturer of spinal implants that launched 27 products in 2016, has revolutionized the TLIF taking it from a 90+ minute minimally invasive procedure to a micro-invasive procedure that has been completed in as little as 25 minutes.
Surgeons like Zeshan Hyder, D.O. of the Bone and Joint Specialists of Northwest Indiana are executing up to six of these procedures in one day. The potential benefits of a drastic reduction in procedural time are directly realized by surgeons and their patients. The system is designed to offer the benefits of: less time in the hospital and OR, reduced incision size, a safer surgery and a more reproducible procedure that caters to an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) setting. 
The main benefit of the micro-invasive TLIF is less time in the operating room which typically correlates to a faster recovery.
Traditional TLIF procedures can take up to six hours. Six hours of muscle retraction, anesthesia, blood loss and fatigue to the hospital staff. Additionally, the longer the operating time, the fewer the patients a surgeon can operate on and the higher the cost of surgery.