Back Pain And Surgery

By Jarrett Kruse

Most of the time our back problems boil down to minor back pain.Surgery isn’t an option moist of us want to consider to rid ourselves of back pain, and it should be considered only after other options, such as a chiropractor or medication have failed. Even chronic back pain may respond to treatment other than surgery, as may severe back pain caused by injury. If your back pain does not respond to other treatment over time and back pain surgery seems like your only option, it’s still advisable to get a second opinion. A skilled doctor may have had success with rehabilitation and back pain and it may be valuable to explore that option before going into surgery.

A good orthopedic surgeon will give other options time to work before recommending back surgery. In most cases, given enough time, other options such as physical therapy, acupuncture, medication or chiropractics eventually produce results. If however, surgery remains the only option, here are some of the most common surgeries performed to relive back pain and correct back injury:

Microdiscectomy. Also known as microdecompression spine surgery. This surgery for nerve pain involves removing a small portion of the bone and/or disc material over or under the nerve root f to alleviate neural impingement and provide more room for the nerve to heal. This is most often performed on a lumbar herniated disc.
Lumbar laminectomy, a different technique to remove the same type of material as a microdiscectomy, usually to correct lumbar spinal stenosis or a narrowing of the lumbar spine.
Cervical spine surgery. This procedure usually treats nerve or spinal cord impingement, or spinal instability.This can be a form of decompression surgery or fusion surgery
Lumbar spinal fusion. This surgery involves grafting bone to fuse to the spine, stabilizing and supporting it to stop painful motion of vertebrae.

Even when surgery seems like the only option, it’s crucial to get a second opinion.