Failed Back Surgery
An increasing number of people suffer from back pain today
. In fact, chronic back pain is responsible for the partial disability and disability of at least 7 million Americans while 93 millions lost workdays per year are attributed to low back pain.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, about 1.2 million spinal surgeries are performed in US every year. While more than 300,000 are spinal fusions, studies have shown that the failed back surgery rate here is as high as 50%.
Most common reasons for failed back surgery
Depending on the severity of the condition, doctors may suggest spinal surgery to treat the condition. However though some patients get relief after back surgery, many people suffer from failed back surgery which only makes their condition worse.
There are various reasons for a failed back surgery. Of the many causes for failed back surgery, residual foramenal stenosis or the narrowing of nerve cells is its leading cause. Additionally, painful discs, recurrent disc herniation and nerve damage are rather common causes for failed back surgery. In some cases, there may be a combination of one or more conditions that induce the pain.
Judgmental error can lead to a failed surgery
Besides specific spinal conditions leading to a failed back surgery, there are other situations that can trigger it too. It could be a technical failure where the surgeon could not fix the condition through the surgery.
Sometimes the failed surgery occurs because of a professional judgment error, where the surgeon performs the surgery to fix a specific problem based on x-rays and other imaging scans. However unfortunately, that specific problem was not the cause of the pain leading to recurrent back pain in the patient, and a failed back surgery.
Sometimes a new problem with similar symptoms may restart even after treating the original problem. Many a time, failed back surgery is also attributed to a scar tissue, if no other cause for the failed surgery could be found.
What insurance companies recommend
As there is an increase in the number of failed back surgery cases, keeping both the patients and their interests in mind, health insurers today suggest that patients try some other less-invasive treatments like physical therapy, acupuncture, alternative therapy or chiropractic care to treat back pain before opting for surgery.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has just instituted a new policy of treating back pain through the use of chiropractic and physical therapy for three months before authorizing the re-imbursement for back surgery. In several studies, chiropractic has been shown to effective treat back and disc conditions while reducing the need for surgery. Of course every patient is unique and a small number of patients will not respond to either types of treatment.
In fact, most patients with acute back pain feel better with conservative care of light exercise, anti-inflammatory medications, education and physical therapy while chiropractic care is considered as tailor-made relief for back and neck pain relief. Of course, you should consult your own chiropractor for their recommendations.
by: steven
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