Surgical Treatments For Back Pain

Surgery is recommended for the patients only when other treatments like medications, exercise, electrical stimulation, and alike fail to treat the back pain successfully. Those patients who have severe, constant and progressive muscle weakness caused by compression of the nerves, need surgery treatment to relieve their back pain.

Some of the back or spine surgeries include:

Laminectomy: In laminectomy, the pain caused by bone spurs or disc fragments is relieved by removing the part of a vertebrae. It is also useful in removing the benign tumors on the spine. Although some small risks are attached to this surgery which sometimes make it unsuccessful. The ultimate aim of laminectomy is to relieve pressure on the spinal nerve by widening the spinal canal. Laminectomy can be performed with or without removing the part of the disc.

Disectomy: Disectomy also involves the removal of diseased disc thus relieving the pressure on the spine. In this only a part of disc is removed which is responsible for putting pressure on the nerve. Although its long term success is not 100 %.

Microdisectomy: The current procedure used is the microdisectomy is that of making a small incision (1 to 1 ½ inch). In this procedure, the discs are lifted and moved away from the spine. Then the injured disc tissue is removed after identifying and moving the nerve root. No change is found in the structures supporting the spine like ligaments, muscles and joints. It uses microscope for its operation.

Spinal fusion: In this process two vertebrae are joined together by bone graft or any other device. Metal plates and screws are also used to attach the bones which are to be joined as an internal brace. A tiny hollow metal cage implanted in to the disc space is used in most spinal fusion surgeries. Then the bone is removed from the patient's hip and packed inside the cage. As the time increases, the bone grows through the holes fusing the vertebrae. When the adjacent bones grow together to form single bone, then fusion occurs.

Other procedures include:
Endoscopic disectomy: It uses a thin tube containing cameras and surgical instruments which are inserted through small incisions.

Percutaneous disectomy: It uses a tube having a device at the tip which cuts away some of the nucleus pulposus and vacuum and then sucks the gelatinous matter out.

Laser disc decompression: It is similar to percutaneous disectomy but it uses laser energy to remove the disc tissue. This energy comes through a needle destroying nucleus pulposus thus reducing the pressure on the nerve.

So these are some of the surgical treatments for curing back pain. Depending upon the type of cause and severity of the pain, appropriate surgery can be recommended to the patient.