Low Back Pain Treatments: Surgery for Chronic Low Back
Pain
continued
Surgical treatments for low back pain
The primary purpose of back surgery is to correct an anatomical lesion in
individuals who fail to show improvement with non-surgical treatments. For those
patients who have pain, but no anatomical lesion can be identified that accounts
for their pain, surgery is not an option. Surgery is useful only to change a
patient’s anatomy (e.g. remove a disc herniation). There is almost never any
reason to consider exploratory surgery to “look” for a cause of pain.
Modern spine surgery has made major advancements in both technique and spinal
instrumentation/implants over the past couple of decades, but by far the most
significant advancement in spine surgery has been better preoperative imaging
techniques. Specifically, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scan) has
revolutionized spine surgery. It is most often the best test to identify an
anatomical lesion responsible for the patient’s problem. The most important
factor in the determination of the success in spine surgery is proper
preoperative diagnosis. Without an accurate preoperative diagnosis, even the
most technically successful surgery has little chance for a successful outcome.
Although spine surgery is performed by either orthopedic surgeons or
neurosurgeons, it is increasingly becoming a field unto itself. Many surgeons
are doing additional specialized training in the field after their residency
training (fellowship training). Given the precision required for these more
demanding surgical techniques, many orthopaedic or neurosurgeons with fellowship
training are choosing to focus more of their practice on spine surgery. Some
believe that the increased level of specialty training and focus on the spine
has contributed to enhancements in surgical technique, which in turn has led to
overall improved success rates and reduced morbidity (e.g. reduced
post-operative discomfort) with many types of spine surgery.
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Source: Spine-health.com –
www.spine-health.com
Last updated: August 31, 2007
This information and the information on Spine-health.com is not intended as a
substitute for medical professional help or advice but is to be used only as an
aid in understanding back pain and neck pain.
© 1999-2007 Spine-health.com. All rights reserved.
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