Your chance of having back surgery is 5 times greater in parts of Michigan than elsewhere in the U.S.
Darmouth Atlas
Smart health facts: Back surgery
If you're fighting back pain, you may want to consider ALL of your options before going through the pain and risk of surgery. Research shows that other treatments often have equal – or better – results. And your likelihood of surgery may depend more on where you live than your actual symptoms.
There are two types of surgery:
- Spinal fusion. This is one of the most common types of back surgery. Screws or bone grafts are used to join two bones in the spine (vertebrae) to make the spine more stable.
- Spinal laminectomy (also called spinal decompression). A spinal laminectomy increases the size of the spine canal to relieve pressure in the back.
Why you might need back surgery
Back surgery is usually done to relieve back pain after other treatments have failed in situations when:
- Bones in the spine have been injured
- The spine has been weakened by infections or tumors
- One of the vertebrae slips forward on top of another
- Slipped disc causes a compressed nerve root
- The spine curves abnormally (this is also called scoliosis)
Understand the risks of back surgery
- Infection in the wound or spine
- Damage to a spinal nerve, which may cause weakness, pain, numbness or bowel/bladder problems
- More back problems later
- Blood clots
Ask your doctor about other options
Most people will have back pain sometime in their lives and find they get better with no treatment or minimum therapy. Some of the ways low back pain can usually be treated without surgery are:
- Physical therapy
- Lifestyle changes, including weight loss
- Chiropractic care
- Pain management through medication and the use of heat or ice
- Massage therapy
- Alternative therapies, including acupuncture or TENS (low-level electrical pulses that ease pain)
Learn more
Get an expert evaluation: If you have back and neck pain, you can get an expert evaluation from a specialist called a "physiatrist" (fizz-EYE-uh-trist). Ask your doctor to send you to one of the Priority Health Spine Centers of Excellence. At a Spine Center, a physiatrist will evaluate your back and neck pain and discuss options with you. Learn more about Spine Centers of Excellence.
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Thinking about surgery?
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