WICHITA, Kansas, March 28, 2007 – When back pain becomes unbearable, patients usually turn to surgery.  Now there's an option that shortens recovery time.

Corrin Beckert, 62, doesn't like to sit around. If she's not working in her garden, she's out walking her dog.

But all that energy couldn't save Corrin from a problem that's haunted her for 40 years – back pain.

"It was just like, just, you know, teeth-grinding pain all the time," Corrin said.  "Like the whole world is sitting on top of my head and driving me, you know, into the ground."

Corrin needed a spinal fusion procedure.

Typically, doctors make a large incision in the back, then cut or move muscles to remove bone and fuse vertebrae.

But Corrin opted for an easier solution. With the XLIF procedure (Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion), surgeons enter through the side, so they don't have to cut muscles.

With a one-inch incision, surgeons actually operate in between the muscles.

"The pain is much less because there is no repair," Dr. Faissal Zahrawi, spine surgeon, said.  "There's, the muscle has not been cut, so there's no healing."

Safety sensors alert the surgeon if he gets too close to nerves, so he can steer around them. Standard surgery takes up to six months to recover from.  The new procedure takes six weeks.

"It makes me feel rewarded and, hopefully, we can help a lot more people that way with this new approach," Zahrawi said.

Three months after surgery, Corrin's back to her favorite hobbies and looks forward to doing more.

Most patients stay in the hospital for 24 hours after the procedure, and are up and walking the same day.

For more information, we've found two nearby doctors.  In Kansas City, call Dr. Frank Holiday at (913) 299-9507.  In Oklahoma City, call Dr. Cheng-Lun Soo at (405) 631-4263.