This type of surgeries are made in order to correct possible problems, anomalies that are of a structural nature. It turns out that it has become increasingly common for people to suffer from back injuries, and specifically spinal injuries. These are generated by various causes, accidents, overexertion, age, bad posture, among others. In Spine MD we clarify what you should know about spine surgeries.
Spine surgeries allow decompression, mobilization of elements, and fixing of vertebral structures and their replacement if necessary. This is an excellent alternative when the pain persists after several treatments, so the patient can live without pain.
We can find different back surgeries, such as:
- Discectomy: this surgery consists of eliminating the hernia on the disc in order to access the nerve that is inflamed and thus relieve its irritation.
- Laminectomy: in this surgery the bone is eliminated to relieve the pressure that was caused by a stenosis.
- Fusion-Spinal: fusion is primarily based on linking 2 or more bones in the spine together. So, with this procedure the pain can be relieved.
- Disc implant: this is the procedure to do when a fusion can’t solve the problem. However, each patient is unique and the doctor will determinate which surgery is best.
These back surgeries can be used to both ease the pain, and also the numbness that comes with this type of pain, which commonly spreads to other parts of the back, even reaching other parts of the body such as legs and arms.
Usually back and spinal pain are caused by compression of a nerve inside the spine. Therefore, nerves can become compressed from various causes. An example might be disk problems, such as a herniated disk that causes a lot of pressure on a vertebra against the nerve.
But there are several options for spinal surgery, among which we have:
Fusion: this is normally used for the following cases:
- Sometimes instability is generated by spondylolisthesis or scoliosis, in these cases the instability causes extra mobility in the spine.
- Arthrostic pain due to hypertrophic arthritic joints.
- When there is some deformity, as in the case of those caused by scoliosis.
- Due to spinal stenosis.
- Anterior cervical fusion, which is practiced to handle degenerative disc disease, in which bone transplants are utilized to fuse the segment being treated.
- Posterior Cervical Fusion, which is used for posterior lumbar fusion.
Surgical techniques:
- Percutaneous techniques, which involve methods as radio frequency denervation that seeks to treat cervical and back pain.
- Electrodermal therapies.
- Vertebroplasty: is a type of technique used to enlarge the intraosseous surface area of a vertebra, applying an injection in order to provide vertebral stability.
Decompression techniques, including the following:
- Microdiskectomy, which is practiced to eliminate the hernia fragments of the intervertebral disc. This procedure is ideal for lumbar micro decompression.
- Micro decompression, this is applied to deal with canal stenosis.
Today there are many options for spinal surgery. In the surgical case, the main alternative to conventional spine surgery is surgery using minimally invasive techniques. Similarly, it is necessary to consult with the best in the area of Spine MD.