With advanced technology, lower back surgery is now available in different procedures but then again the success rate is still low. Thus back surgery should only be considered when other conventional treatment failed, when there is injury in the peripheral nerves or presence of neurologic disease that is progressive.
Besides it might take months for the patient to recover from the surgery and the result is not 100% successful. There are instances that you may end up much worst than before the surgery. But not all surgical procedures are invasive. Some procedures may not need you to get hospitalize. You might be able to go home on the same day that the surgery is done. It can be performed as outpatient and uses local anesthesia.
Types of Lower Back Surgery
Discectomy
This surgery is done to relieve the patient from pressure on a nerve root cause by a bulging disc. The procedure involves the removal of a small piece of Lamina above the obstruction.
Foraminotomy
This procedure is done to enlarge the foramen where the nerve root stems out from the spinal canal. Joints thickened or bulging disc may cause the foramen to become thin thus compressing the nerve. This then causes pain, weakness or numbness of the extremities. To ease the pressure the surgeon will have to eliminate a small bone over the nerve by making a small cut which lets the surgeon cut away the obstruction.
IntraDiscal Electrothermal Therapy (IDET)
This procedure is used to relieve you from pain caused by bulging spinal disc. This therapy involves the use of special needle by inserting it into the disc through a catheter. Once the needle is inserted it is then heated to a high temperature for about twenty minutes hence sealing the disc wall. This process will lessen the inner disc bulge.
Nucleoplasty
This procedure is used to treat lower back pain due to contained disc or mildly herniated disc. The process involves the use of wand like instrument and an x-ray imaging inserted through a needle into the disc so as to create a passage. This makes way to the removal of the inner disc material. Several passages may be made depending on the amount of material to be eliminated. When the material is removed the wand heats and then seals the tissue of the disc.
Spinal Laminectomy
This process is done to ease out pressure in the spinal cord and nerve roots. This process is also known as spinal decompression. This process involves the elimination of the lamina to widen the spinal canal.
Other type of lower back surgery includes Radiofrequency Lesioning, Spinal fusion, Rhizotomy, Cordotomy and Dorsal Root Entry Zone Operation (DREZ). You can discuss all this types with your doctor and your doctor will recommend one that would best treat your condition. However success rate is not that high but nevertheless if surgery is really needed then you just have to be ready and discuss everything with your doctor including the risk, benefits and most of all the aftercare procedures after the operation.