MAST, or Minimal Access Spine Technologies, allow spine surgeons like Anders Cohen to deal conclusively with many spine disorders without needing to subject their patients to extremely invasive surgical techniques. As such, these tools are no less than revolutionary for both spine surgeons and their patients as well.
As a matter of fact, MAST has had a major impact not only in the field of spine surgery but also in other surgical subspecialties. MAST used to operate on the spine includes fiber optics and fiber optic-enabled video cameras, catheters, endoscopes, and other such key instruments. These are utilized by Anders Cohen and other spine surgeons for procedures like lumbar discectomies.
MAST had become part and parcel of many other procedures conducted by specialists in other fields like cardiology, gastrointestinal medicine, and orthopedics. For instance, surgeons conducting arthroscopic or knee surgery need only to make relatively tiny incisions in order to treat knees. Those seeking to treat coronary artery disease need to use catheters, which can be routed into patients’ bodies through small cuts. Meanwhile, those wishing to diagnose and treat ailments of the digestive tract may make use of an endoscope.
The advantage of MAST procedures for patients as well as surgeons like Anders Cohen lies in their non-invasive nature. An invasive procedure is in and of itself time-consuming, expensive, and inherently very risky, requiring a number of incisions to be made just to reach the body part that needs to be examined or treated. Also, even after a successful operation, recovery can be prolonged and painful, especially if extensive cuts were made. In contrast, minimally invasive techniques do not require making large incisions, and are thus less expensive, less time-consuming and faster to recover from. At a time when costs for medical treatments in the United States are rising, minimally-invasive procedures are indeed viable alternatives.