Surgical Treatments For Back Pain

The good news about surgical treatments for back pain is twofold:

1) Less than 1 percent of those who suffer from back pain ever need surgery.

2) Medical advances have made back surgery easier to tolerate and recover from, with more optimistic prospects for recovery than ever before.

At present, many experts agree that more back surgery than was medically necessary was performed in the past, with too many of the recipients not benefiting from it. Some even became worse as a result. Today the standard for back surgery is that an individual has a clearly defined medical condition with a specific solution that will provide clear benefits.

With greater specialization in back surgery and the ongoing development of techniques, success rates have improved and there has been a reduction in post-surgery difficulties. Recovery times, especially given the growth in outpatient procedures and rehabilitation strategies, have been significantly reduced. Surgeries that once were regarded as things we needed months to fully recover from are now seen more as temporary interruptions, with some only requiring a few hours.

An important point to remember when considering back surgery is that it is only helpful when a specific change in the anatomy of an individual’s back is called for to correct a condition that has been clearly identified. It is not done on an exploratory basis or because no cause has yet been found. In addition, even when the problem has been identified, surgery is generally regarded as a last resort and recommended only after more conservative approaches, such as medication and physical therapy, have been attempted and judged not to be sufficient.