How to Know if You Can Avoid Back Surgery

Every year, a few hundred thousand low back operations happen in America. Overall the successful results from these operations depends on the reason for the operation along with the technical skill of it being performed.

How does an individual know if a back surgery can be avoided and if he or she is in the category of having the choice to opt out of surgery without potential for future harm?

The primary thing to understand up front is what exactly is the diagnosis. Most common diagnoses for back pain include:

1. Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD)

2. Herniated Disc

3. Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

4. Degenerative Osteoarthritis

5. Osteoporotic Compression Fracture

Once the person has the diagnosis established, it may be placed into either a 1) Elective quality of life issue or 2) Surgical Indication exists

First let’s look at Degenerative Disk Disease (DDD), which is a fairly common diagnosis between the ages of thirty and sixty. A significant amount of the population has DDD and no back pain. Others though may end up with significant back pain and disability.

Degenerative disk disease is not something that necessitates an operation, it becomes a quality of life decision. The success rates for fusion surgeries for DDD are between 50 and 70% and lots of patients need future surgery and continued narcotics. Non-surgical DDD treatment can help a lot for pain including aerobic exercise, NSAIDS, chiropractic, and pain management.

Most diagnoses are similar to degenerative disc in a sense that surgery is not absolutely necessary. If considerable conservative treatment is unsuccessful, then surgery may be considered as a quality of life decision. A lumbar herniated disc that is pinching a nerve may fall into this category if it’s only causing pain and/or numbness. If a patient can deal with the pain, studies show that the outcomes with surgery versus nonoperative treatment are identical after one year.

If muscle weakness is present such as a foot drop, then surgery may be indicated. With a neurologic deficit, then the longer one waits to undergo an operation the chances are it will not improve even if the operation is done perfectly.

This is exactly the point with spinal arthritis. No one ever died as a result of arthritis. So if arthritis causes degeneration or a spondylolisthesis along with spinal stenosis and there’s no muscle weakness from pinched nerves, the situation is elective. Opting for surgery is fine if conservative treatment has been exhausted, there is a surgery for the specific condition with a successful track record, and the patient is healthy enough to undergo it. But if the condition is in fact elective, patients need to weigh the pros and cons considerably to make sure they are comfortable with the potential for a poor outcome compared to the potential for marginal improvement with nonsurgical treatments.

These may include physical therapy, spinal decompression treatment, chiropractor treatment, and pain doctor treatments.

Want to find out more about pain doctors in Arizona, then visit Preferred Pain Center’s site on how to choose the best Phoenix chiropractors for your pain treatment.