It depends on who you ask. “Neurosurgeon trained in minimal invasive surgery should be your preferred choice”.
A minimally invasive procedure is one that merely is less invasive than the alternative.
Minimally invasive procedures, therefore, may require special equipments for better visualization and the micro instruments.
An open spinal surgery is one in which your surgeon makes an incision, typically about five to six inches long, dissect and retract the muscles to one side in order to operate on the bone.
Minimally invasive spine surgery, on the other hand, only requires a small incision about an inch long and uses a special tool called a tubular retractor with which muscle fibres are spread out instead of dissecting all the way. This causes far less trauma to your muscles, which means less post-surgical pain and faster recovery.
The advantages of minimally invasive spine surgery include