More than 10 million Americans will tell you chronic back pain hurts all over.

From the shooting pain while walking, lifting or even sitting to pain while lying down, making sleep difficult, chronic back pain isn't just isolated to the back.

While most back pain is caused by muscle strain, the discs of our spine are also common culprits. Degeneration of the padding between the bones in our spine can cause painful bone on bone grinding. Herniations of those discs can also press onto the nerves running down the spine, causing pain in the back and even down to the legs.

Scoliosis is often thought of as a childhood condition, but degenerative adult scoliosis usually begins as low back pain and is caused by degeneration of the spine. If you have chronic back pain, you should see your doctor to get an accurate diagnosis quickly, as the source of pain could come from a variety of conditions.

Chronic back pain is just that -- painful. But recovering from highly invasive, open back surgery can also be debilitating. Weeks of recovery can inhibit a patient's comfort and personal life. Scar tissue can also form near nerve roots after invasive back surgery, causing continued postoperative pain.

Now, a new, minimally invasive back surgery can provide the same results as open back surgery -- without opening the patient up! Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF) is used for anterior lumbar fusion from L1 to L5. This procedure is not effective for L5-S1. According to manufacturers, the XLIF procedure can be used to treat spondylolisthesis, recurrent disc herniations, foraminal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, degenerative scoliosis, pseudoarthrosis and minimally invasive disc replacements.

The procedure begins with the patient lying on his side. The surgeon makes several small incisions in the patient's back, avoiding an incision that traverses the abdomen and also avoids cutting or disrupting the muscles of the back.

Disc space is assessed from a small incision in the patient's flank, and real time X-ray images are taken of the spine. Special monitoring equipment is used to determine the proximity of the working instruments to the nerves of the spine. Disc material is removed and replaced with a bone graft, then protected by a cage made of bone, a polymer, titanium or carbon-fiber.

Doctors and manufacturers report patients experience less pain and a shorter hospital stay following the XLIF procedure than traditional open back lumbar surgery. It can be performed on an outpatient basis, getting patients home and back to normal life quickly. Physical therapy may be needed to help patients get back to normal, pain-free functioning.

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