Half of these back pain patients had surgery to fuse two or more vertebra. The other half had no surgery even though they had comparable diagnoses. After two years, just 26% of the surgery group returned to work. 67% of the non-operative group returned to work. There was a 41% increase in addictive pain medication for those who had surgery!
Two Level Lumbar Spinal Fusion
Despite these poor outcomes, fusion surgery is on the rise. In July, another study in Spine reported that fusion surgery has increased 800% in the past 15 years. Some areas in the USA are 300 to 400% higher than the national average.
Dr. William Welch, vice chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and chief of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania Hospital commented, “Even when the surgery is a success, it rarely dispels 100% of back pain.”
Dr. Doris K. Cope, professor and vice chair for pain medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine says, “the best results come about through a combination of approaches. Each strategy may reduce pain by just 10 or 20%, but those percentages can add up so ultimately the patient’s pain is cut back by as much as 70 to 80%.”
Doctors’ Choice Physical Medicine and Rehab has a combination approach that includes manipulation, physical therapy, massage, therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular reeducation (balance and stability training) and nutrition. We refer out or work with the patient’s family doctor or specialist for medication and epidural, if necessary.
The MSNBC article can be found here:
Back surgery may backfire on patients in pain – Health – Pain center – msnbc.com
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Back surgery fails 74 percent of the time and yet insurers still cover the procedures and patients still line up for them hoping for a quick fix. What they too often end up with is a problem that is much worse. Failed back surgery syndrome is “characterized by intractable pain and varying degrees of functional incapacitation occurring after spine surgery”. Where is the logic?
The logic to FBSS seems to be financial. The final tally on my 2 surgeries (4 lumbar spaces – posterior and anterior) was >250,000.00. So there you have it. Someone decided this would work well in that for just 9 or 10 hours of surgical work, several people would make obscene amounts of money. Isn’t that logical? Pain? you say. Oh, never mind that. I am well supplied with medication for that. Some people actually use more than is prescribed and even sell their drugs for money. Is there any logic there? Feels like insanity to me. Felt very much like a nightmare for a long long time. It took about 5 years for me to really accept my situation (my “disability”). You see that word would not come out of my mouth easily. But now, after lots of therapy and rehab., and counseling, not to mention the weekly visits to my pain doctor, chiropractor, and other professionals offering to “help” me… ( Oh, we must remember to add these folks to the $$ amount received right?) I can now say without hesitation, “Hi, my name is Deborah and I am Disabled.” And people smile and say very kind, sympathetic things, or hold the door. I get lots of attention in my life now. So who says there is no logic to this madness?