Back surgery can be an optional treatment for the back pain if traditional treatments haven’t worked and you are dealing with pain and disability to move around easily. It can relieve you with the associated pain or numbness that move down either one or both arms or legs.

(People Also Like To Read: Slipped Disk: Symptoms, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment)

Back pain can be treated non-surgically with spinal injections, physical therapy, medication management, or a combination of these treatment options. So here we will discuss the need for back surgery, its benefits, its risk as well as its type.

Why You Need A Back Surgery?

Every back pain doesn’t need surgery, but it required when persistant back pain occur. It can be caused by compressed nerves in your spine. Nerves can be compressed due to the following reasons:

Disk Problems

The rubbery cushions are used to separating the bones of your spine, sometimes it can be press too tightly against a spinal nerve and can affect its functioning.

Overgrowth of Bone

Osteoarthritis can result in a bone spurs on your spine. This extended bone most commonly affects the joints on the back part of the spinal column and can reduce the space available for nerves in your spine.

Sometimes, It can be very difficult to find out the exact reason for your back pain, even if your X-rays show that you have disk problems or bone spurs.

What Are The Types of Back Surgery?

Basically, there are three types of back surgery.

Laminectomy

Laminectomy is removing the back part of the bone known as lamina over the spinal column. It is performed to ease nerve root compression in the spinal column. The compressed nerve root causes leg and back pain. A complete segment of the lamina can be removed to ease the pressure on a nerve.

Discectomy

Discectomy is the removing of a portion of a disc to relieve pressure on a nerve.

A spinal fusion

Spinal fusion involves the permanent fusion of two or more vertebrae for more stability, to relieve pain or correct a deformity of it. The surgeon will reap a small piece of bone from your hip or pelvic bone and place them between the vertebrae. In most of the cases, they will use rods, screws, wires, metal cages or plates to provide immediate stability.

(You Might Also Like To Read: Paget’s Disease of Bone: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis & Treatment)

What Are the Benefits of Back Surgery?

Here is the list of the benefits of back surgery:

• Movements can be better
• Physical fitness.
• Mood improvement
• No need to take a painkiller.
• Can go back to work.
• Productivity enhancement at work.

What Are The Risks?

There are minimal risks of it, but still, every operation has some degree of risk, including:

• Reaction to anesthesia
• Bleeding
• Infection
• Blood clots, for instance in your legs or lungs
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Herniated disk
• Nerve damage, which can lead to weakness, paralysis, pain, sexual dysfunction, or loss of bowel or bladder control

Conclusion

Well, back surgery is not the only treatment for back pain but, if the traditional way and medication don’t work to relieve the back pain then it’s required. Here, we have discussed the types of back surgery, when it is required as well as its risks. If you are dealing with persistent back pain and disability in movement then consult the doctor as soon as possible.

(People Also Like To Read: Tips For Arthritis Management: Symptoms & Causes)