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Back Pain Surgery

Back pain surgery is reserved for those patients whose back pain is most severe, and who've not responded to several months of conservative treatment. Generally only five percent of patients need back pain surgery to treat their problem.

Your doctor may recommend surgery if your case is due to nerve root impingement, degenerative conditions like spinal stenosis, or a spinal structural deformity. He or she also may consider prescribing surgery if your suffering limits your ability to take care of yourself, you cannot perform daily activities like household chores or work, or if conservative back pain treatment options do not reduce your pain.

If you suffer from chronic upper back pain, mid back pain, or lower back pain caused by nerve impingement – and you have been under the care of a doctor for a while – it’s likely that your doctor has used a lot of medical terminology to describe the various surgeries available to treat your symptoms. The following are some terms you may come across in your discussion of back pain surgery:

• Foramen – Foramen is a word that means “opening.”
• Neuroforamen – Neuro means “nerve” and, as previously mentioned, foramen means “opening.” Neuroforamen, therefore, is an opening in your spinal column where nerves pass. The 31 pairs of spinal nerve roots that exit your spinal column do so through openings called neuroforamen. The neuroforamen are located to the left and right of each bony vertebra. Nerve space is created by the intervertebral discs that sit in between the vertebrae, separating the vertebrae and providing just enough room for nerve roots to exit the spinal column. When talking about back pain surgery, your doctor might discuss the need to remove bone tissue and open up one or more of your neuroforamen, to provide more space for your spinal nerves to go through.
• Spinal decompression surgery – this is a general term for any number of surgeries that are designed to “decompress,” or reduce pressure, in the spinal column, in an effort to release nerves from that painful pressure.
• -Ectomy – You’ll notice that a lot of surgical terms end in -ectomy. A surgery that ends in “ectomy” means “removal.” If your doctor, therefore, talks about a discectomy, it means the removal of an intervertebral disc. A laminectomy is the removal of the lamina, which are arches of bone that protect the spinal cord. A foraminectomy is a surgery to expand the neuroforamen (openings) in the spinal column; this is done by removing a large amount of bone.
• -Otomy – The suffix “otomy” means cutting or incision, and surgical terms ending in -otomy typically mean the cutting of tissue, but not necessarily a great deal of tissue removal.

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If you aren’t responding to conservative treatments such as exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture, or injections, you may need more progressive treatments like back pain surgery, but some of the terms associated with surgery might make you feel a little nervous. Fortunately, Laser Spine Institute (LSI) offers minimally invasive endoscopic procedures that use micro-instruments to remove the smallest amount of tissue possible that’s impinging on nerve tissue, releasing that nerve tissue from pressure and easing painful symptoms. For a free MRI or CT scan review by the experts at Laser Spine Institute, and to learn more information about our revolutionary procedures, contact us today.

Please note: Laser Spine Institute currently does not perform endoscopic procedures on the thoracic spine.