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Hey all!
Jason here,
Your friendly, neighbourhood Pain expert and the owner of the Only place to go for Pain.
This week I am going to talk about the research done on Lumbar (Back) fusion surgery. You will find out things the surgeons very rarely tell patients about back surgery and why it is not the miracle cure for back pain it is advertised as.
1. 51 % of all lumbar fusions done fail. This leads to progressive worsening of the original back pain and neuropathy (Pins and needles or numbness people feel in their legs and feet that is caused by a pinched nerve in the back). The failure rate drastically increases to 75% when it is more than one surgery.
WHY?? Well, it is simple 89% of all back pain is not caused by the bones in the spine. As well an equally high number of radiculopathy (The medical name for Pinched nerves in the back) are compressed outside of the spine.
Therefore, any intervention will lead to no improvement or complications arising from the immense damage done to the body by cutting away important muscles and ligaments and drilling in large bolts into the spine and fixing a body part that was designed to move in place. The damage done by the surgery is permanent and it is often impossible to reverse.
The most common complication from surgery is the Devices used for the surgery breaking. The second is an infection of the site of surgery. That sounds like profoundly serious complications to risk getting.
2. 67% of people with no back pain that has an MRI have at least 1 bulging disc.
57% have more than one. 47% have degenerative changes of the joints of the spine.
These are all in people with no back pain. The number of “Abnormalities increase with age”.
The researchers determined that “With these findings on the MRI being so common that they are often coincidence.” Adding on to that, not the cause of the back pain.
This study came out in 1994. Doctors have known this for a long time. So, when you have those changes that are found on an MRI, you really need an expert to confirm that the finding on the MRI is in fact what is causing your pain.
3. The most common indication for Lumbar fusion surgery is previous lumbar fusion surgery.
This is an incredibly scary fact to me. That the most common reason people go in for back surgery is that they had back surgery in the past that has caused problems that need to be fixed.
When the surgery causes so much damage to the spine that is permanent. Prevents the spine from moving the way God intended. And the surgery could be done because of findings on the MRI that have nothing to do with why you have back pain. Back surgery sounds to me like something that must be avoided. That you must do everything you can before you go under the knife.
Once you have the surgery there is no going back. The damage is permanent.
BONUS!!!
The National Institute of clinical excellence in the UK said that “Paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (AKA NSAIDS these include aspirin and ibuprofen), benzodiazepines or opioids (Pain killers like Stilpane, Tramadol and morphine) should not be offered for the management of Chronic Back pain. This is because there was little or no evidence that they made any difference to people’s quality of life, pain, or psychological distress.
There you go. Even the experts from the UK that guide The Doctors and specialist have said that pain killers and anti-inflammatory do not work for old back pain.
Why are you still trying to see if it will work?
Try something different by booking an appointment with us. You know from the reviews and testimonials that we are the only place to go for Back pain.
Jason
