A surgeon's prescription and solution for back pain is usually an operation. Up to today, there is not much evidence backing up back surgery. Just like a doctor is taught to prescribe medications and sometimes overmedicating patients, surgeons are focused on surgery.
Statistically, reports have revealed that an estimated two to four hundred thousand American patients undergo a lower back surgery in the United States every year. Out of these numbers, a whopping thirty to eighty thousand experience more lower back pain after the surgery, than BEFORE they had the surgery.
Unfortunately, unnecessary and misdiagnosed surgeries have been the cause of-dealing with the same and/or new additional back pain.
Popular "LOWER BACK SURGERY" favoured by Surgeons:
Laminectomy:
Removal of a disc and nearby bone, enabling the nerve which is branching off the central spinal cord more liberty to be in motion and not getting ensnared or compressed by the spine.
Fusion:
One vertebra is surgically attached to another. A doctor would diagnose this procedure if there were too much movement between the vertebras. After fusion, this section of the spine will be immobile.
Studies concluded that even after having the discs removed, the results were that the lower back pain was relieved in ONLY half of all patients. Those who had the least success were those who had disc(s) removed. Additionally, studies have been comparing operations for those without lumbar (lower back) spinal fusion surgery, and came to the conclusion that there was no advantage for fusion. Complications after surgery: chronic pain.
Post surgical scarring ("epidural fibrosis") can itself be a cause of failed surgery for chronic back pain. Commonly a result of a surgery is the problem with nerve-root injury. During the operation, the nerve is being separated from a herniated disc, causing a permanent scarring. What is the result? A long-term pain and pressure on the nerve. This is caused by damage to the dura or the cauda equine (membranes covering the spinal cord) resulting from bad surgical techniques.
As an example of bad surgical technique after a spinal operation is an inflammation of the delicate layers of the spinal cord (meninges), which became inflamed, and then thickened. This thickening membrane presses constantly on the spine, incapacitating a person with excruciating pain.
Surgery can help if there is a specific problem correctly identified and the surgical technique successfully administrated. Surgery can help if the patient is suffering from a:
1) Spinal deformation
2) Fracture
3) Herniated disc(s).
