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medpundit |
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Thursday, April 11, 2002Spinal fusion surgery involves fusing the vertebrae together to stabilize the spine on the theory that degenerative changes (wear and tear) make the vertebrae and discs more likely to “slip” and cause pain. However, it isn’t all that effective for most cases of chronic low back pain. Groopman finds that in his community it is overdone. That’s not surprising. He lives in Boston, our nation’s medical Mecca. Patients travel long distances in hopes of a cure at the hands of prestigious specialists. The problem is, when the treatment fails, they don’t travel those long distances to complain about it, they return to their primary care doctors at home. It isn’t done in my community with anything like the frequency it’s done in his. We only have a handful of surgeons who do back surgery, and their patients live here, not miles away, so they have to take responsibility for their treatment failures. The result is that they are much more conservative in selecting people for the procedure. This is one case where you're probably better off staying with the local specialists for treatment. My experience backs up what Dr. Groopman so eloquently expresses in the article; patients with chronic back pain who undergo spinal fusion rarely get relief. They seem to do best when they are treated with physical therapy or a chronic pain program that combines physical therapy with counseling. Even acute low back pain from a herniated disc resolves on its own 97% of the time. If you can live with the pain, it’s better to do so for the six to eight weeks it takes to get better than to undergo the risks of surgery. Of course, if the pain is intolerable, then surgery is worth it. It’s also a good idea to keep moving around as much as you can. We used to tell people with back injuries to rest their backs, but staying in bed all day makes the muscles stiffen and prolongs the pain. A good rule of thumb is, “If it hurts, don’t do it,” but otherwise don’t restrict your activities. You won’t injure your back anymore than it already is, and you won’t let those muscles get tight and achey, either. For more information on dealing with back pain, click here. posted by Sydney on 4/11/2002 06:29:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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