Back Surgery
Most people with back pain can recover without back surgery. Treatment includes pain medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid injections, applied heat or cold, rest, traction, support, massage and physical therapy.
Common Back Surgery Proceedures:
If back surgery is necessary, the disk may be removed or part of the spine may be fused. In addition, hardware such as rods, plates or screws may be used in back surgery. One procedure is a diskectomy, the removal of a herniated disk to relieve pressure on a nerve root.
Another type of back surgery is called a laminectomy and is performed when the major problem appears to be spinal stenosis. Basically it involves the removal of the lamina to make more room for the nerves and allows the surgeon to remove bone spurs, as well.
If mechanical back pain is the problem, the solution may involve a back surgery method called spinal fusion – placing a bone graft between two or more vertebrae, causing the vertebrae to grow together, or fuse. Fusing them together reduces the mechanical back pain and pressure on the nerve root.
To learn more about back surgery, visit the Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center website.
Back Surgery
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and North Carolina Baptist Hospital. All rights reserved.
Medical Center Boulevard
Winston-Salem, NC 27157
(336) 716-2011