When to Get a Back Surgery?

Back pain is an extremely common condition suffered by people all over the world. But in most cases of back surgery, it does not help in relieving the symptoms. Hence, it is important to know why you are experiencing the pain and if surgery has chances of relieving it.

Back surgery can be helpful when the back pain stems from specific causes. But, surgery is rarely necessary. Most of the people can resolve the issue by itself in a span of three months.

Low back pain is considered to be a very common ailment most family doctors have to deal with. Back problems are capable of responding to non-surgical treatments like heat, physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory medications.

Conditions Requiring Back Surgery

Back surgery can be opted in situations when conservative treatments fail to provide relieve to the pain. The pain is usually disabling and persistent. Back surgery is known to relieve associated numbness or pain that usually goes down both or one leg or arm.

These symptoms usually occur when the spinal nerves get compressed. Nerves might compress due to several reasons. Some of them are discussed below:

• Disk Problems: Ruptured (herniated) or bulged disks, the specific rubbery cushions known to separate the connecting bones in the spine, could result in back pain because the vertebrae presses the spinal nerve too tightly affecting its normal functioning.

• Bone Overgrowth: Osteoarthritis is known to cause bone spurs in the human spine. The excess bone can affect your hinge joints present on the spinal column’s back part. This can in turn narrow down the space needed by the nerves for passing through the openings present in the spine.

It is not easy to pinpoint the exact reason causing your back pain, even at situations when your X-rays shows bone spurs or disk problems.