spine surgery - can we cure your back pain?
February 26th, 2008 | by DrShukairy |Often, when discussing surgery with back pain patients, it’s a matter of expectations.
So let’s just get it over with:
We can’t cure your back pain.
The best we can hope to achieve with either conservative, medical or surgical treatment is a reduction in back pain that can allow a patient to resume a functional life.
Part of the challenge lies in the mystery of the etiologies, or sources, of back pain. Pain can arise from the disc, facet joints, nerve root compression, bony fractures, ligament injury…you get the picture. And part of it is simply aging. As we age, the spine, like other joints in the body (hips, shoulders, and knees), begins to wear down, lose its flexibility, develop arthritic changes, all of which worsen back pain symptoms.
When evaluating a patient with back pain, the foremost challenge is to properly diagnose the source of pain. If we can identify a source, we are much more likely to reduce the pain with our interventions.
But always remember: injections, physical therapy, surgery…none of these can reverse the process of aging. So despite our best efforts, a reduction in pain, rather than its elimination, is a far more realistic and achievable goal. And it’s a goal you can discuss with your doctor or surgeon when considering the next step to take.
