When should you undergo back surgery to relieve your pain and heal your condition? Often, spinal problems may be fixed through more conservative means such as physical therapy, chiropractic visits, medication, ice/heat treatment, or massage. Spinal surgery is advised only when these more conservative treatments have not worked and your pain or immobility is still as bad as ever.
The Mayo Clinic advises people to consider spinal surgery if they have the following conditions:
1) Your spinal nerves are compressed
2) You have vertebral fractures or osteoporosis
3) Your discs are ruptured or bulging (herniated)
4) You have broken bones or an injured spinal column
5) You have kyphosis or a hump back
6) You’ve been diagnosed with spinal stenosis
7) You’re affected by degenerative disc disease
These are some of the common conditions that may require surgery. Spinal surgeons conduct a variety of different operations to fix the problem at hand. One of the most common operations is the spinal fusion, which links two or more bones in the spine and improves stability within a spinal fracture. It is often used when a patient has a degenerated disc. A spinal fusion will also likely alleviate pain for the patient.
Implanting artificial discs has also become a popular form of surgery in recent years. This also reduces painful movement associated with an injured disc between two vertebrae. A diskectomy, on the other hand, involves removing the herniated portion of a disc and alleviating the inflammation around a spinal nerve. Spinal stenosis is often treated with a laminectomy, which removes the bone on top of the spinal canal and relieves nerve pressure.
Whatever condition you may have, if conservative treatments have not helped, you may want to speak with a spinal surgeon to see if you are a qualified candidate for back surgery.