This is certainly a concern for patients with a widely degenerative spine where multiple discs have herniated and there maybe other wear and tear changes.
The simple answer is - we don’t know! Your surgeon will operate with the best intentions and provide you with the best service possible. But there are many other factors than the surgeon or surgery itself that can impact on your recovery.
This includes:
- Your weight - obesity is a significant risk for back pain and can impact recurrence
- Other medical conditions - such as diabetes, vascular disease etc - these can impact on your overall healing and recovery from any kind of procedure
- The extent of your degenerative changes - the more diffuse the changes, the harder it will be to resolve all of your symptoms and indeed limit the recurrence
Things you can do to help yourself include
- Attend physiotherapy/rehab sessions to strengthen you back
- Exercise - many people use back pain as an excuse not to exercise but this is essential and can help reduce your pain levels
- Reduce weight - again, as with point 2, many people say back pain limits their activities but in fact people with back pain MUST exercise
- Control you other medical conditions
Sometimes when people have had a fusion operation, they can develop more pain above or below the operation due to their increased compensatory movement at these levels and hence it increases the development of degenerative changes as well. This can lead to their pain not resolving.
I hope this helps.
Bw
Dr Dinesh
