Back Pain and Surgery: Is It Effective?

At least 80% of Americans will suffer from back pain at least once in their lives. The majority of back pain complaints can be treated and managed with non invasive, conservative chiropractic care. Chiropractic has been shown to effectively treat low back pain that last for more than a month. It can also be used to treat other conditions such as, neck pain, carpal tunnel and hip pain just to name a few.

The many medical innovations have allowed for orthopedic surgeons to perform back surgeries and get better results than they did before but some patients end up experiencing more pain after surgery.

600,000 Americans go in for back fusion surgery each year
Spinal fusion surgeries fuse two or more vertebrate.

In some cases, this can cause more pain for the patient. When two vertebral segments are fused (genetically) or surgically it restricts the natural movement of the vertebrate above and below the fused segment. This in turn leads to decreased motion in the joint above and below the fusion. Since the motion of the spine is altered this can lead to more pain and degeneration of the joints.

Medical Researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine reviewed records from 1,450 patients in the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation database who were diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, disc herniation or radiculopathy, a nerve condition that causes tingling and weakness of the limbs.

50 % of patients had back surgery to fuse 2 or more vertebrate in hopes of curing their low back pain
50% did not have surgery
2 years later
26% of those who had fusion surgery returned to work
67% of those who did not have surgery returned to work

The results of the study show that there was lost productivity among the group of patients that had back surgery and a 41% increase in the use of painkillers, mainly opiates.

In this case the fusion surgery that was supposed to help alleviate and cure their back pain, in some cases made it worse. There are cases where back surgery is needed and the patients who have the surgery are able to live with less pain.