The Medical Approach to Treating Disc Problems

      The medical approach to treating disc problems is often a combination of pain killers, muscle relaxers, and physical therapy, which may involve hot packs, cold packs, whirlpool baths, traction, electrical stimulation, and exercises.

      Sometimes myelogram is performed to diagnose disc problems. This involves injecting dye into the spinal cord and then X-raying the area to see if the dye is going into places it shouldn't— a sign of rupture or tearing of the disc. The problem with myelogram is that they have a large margin of error (30-40%). Their use is being abandoned by may specialists.

 Back Surgery for Problems of the Spine

      If the medical treatments fail, then back surgery, usually performed by a specialist called Orthopedic Surgeon, may be suggested. The surgery often performed is called laminectomy.

      Laminectomy can involve the removal of the back of the vertebrae and the scraping away of the disc. With no disc between them, the vertebrae may fuse into a solid bone. In some procedures, pieces of bone are scraped away from the hips and are supplied to the exposed vertebrae.

LUMBAR LAMINECTOMY

How successful is orthopedic surgery?

      Following laminectomy, symptomatic improvement such as lessening of the pain is often short lived. After about six months to one year, there isn't much difference between the patients who had the surgery and another group that did not. ⁽¹⁾

      A twenty year study of World War 2 veterans found that in 400 surgical cases, 52% had the same low back pain and leg pain following surgery as before.

      Another study of 886 surgeries found that 56% were cured and 44% were unchanged or worse after the operation. ⁽²⁾

      In still another study of 7,391 operations performed by 71 different surgeons, 48% had the same symptoms within one year after surgery as before. ⁽³⁾

FAILED BACK SURGERY

Failed Back Surgery

     The failure of back surgery in so many cases is now called a special name: Failed Back Surgery Syndrome. By now, there are approximately 600,000 back surgeries performed per year with about 50% failure rate, or an FBSS rate of 300,000 per year.

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Ear infections

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Scoliosis

Learning Disorders

1. Hakelius, A., Prognosis in Sciatica. Acta Orthop Scand (Suppl), 128

2. Salenius, P. and Laurent, L.E., Results of Operative Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation, Octa-Orthop Scand, 48:630-634

3. Dommisse, G.F., Grahe, R.P., The Failure of Surgery for Lumbar Disc Disorders, Disorders of the Lumbar Spine, Lippincott

4. Disc Problems/Back Surgery, Koren Publications, Inc., 2026 Chestnut St., PA 19103

Video credits:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=LBK0knskp_s&feature=related

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkQwHq7HPaA