Spine Surgery
What is Spine Surgery
If you’ve struggled with back pain for any length of time, you may be wondering if spine surgery is your only treatment option. Sometimes, surgery is the only treatment.
However, there’s good news. The vast majority of back problems can be remedied with non-surgical treatments—often referred to as non-surgical or conservative therapies.
By the time you sign up for back surgery, your doctor will probably have tried a number of treatments to ease your back pain or lower body weakness.
Types of Spine Surgery
- Diskectomy. This procedure removes the herniated portion of a disk.
- Laminectomy. This procedure removes bone at the back of the spine to make more room for the spinal cord and nerves.
- Fusion. Spinal fusion removes the arthritic joints and often uses metal implants to help permanently connect two or more bones in the spine.
- Artificial disks. These devices are made of plastic and metal. They can replace the damaged cushion between two spinal bones.
Treatment
Medications
Your health care provider might prescribe:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). If common pain relievers don’t provide enough relief, prescription NSAIDs might be helpful.
- Antidepressants. Nightly doses of tricyclic antidepressants, such as amitriptyline, can help ease chronic pain.
- Anti-seizure drugs. Some anti-seizure drugs, such as gabapentin (Neurontin, Gralise), are used to reduce pain caused by damaged nerves.
- Opioids. Medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Roxicodone, others) and hydrocodone (Hysingla ER) can be habit-forming.
What Are the Benefits?
- You can move around better.
- You’re more physically fit.
- Your mood improves.
- You don’t need to take as much pain medicine.
- You can go back to work.
- You’re more productive at work.
Risks
Most people who get back surgery have minimal, if any, complications.
That said, any operation has some degree of risk, including:
Reaction to anesthesia or other drugs
- Bleeding
- Infection
- Blood clots, for instance in your legs or lungs
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Herniated disk