Spinal Stenosis Surgery

Unlike decades back, today, the decision as to whether the patient is to undergo a spinal stenosis surgery or not is not solely the doctor’s. Patients play very big role in assessing the treatment to be carried out if the case is not, at all, severe or calling for urgent treatment.

When it comes to treating spinal stenosis, several factors are being weighed in deciding on whether to go with spinal stenosis surgery or not. Among those deciding factors are the extent of pain being experienced at current state and the expected extent in days to come, preference of patient (only when the case is not considered as ‘severe’ or as ‘emergency’ by medical professionals), urgency of the need to be cured, and success attained through application of non-surgical treatments. Usually, patients and doctor do not resort to having spinal stenosis surgery at once. If possible, all the non-surgical methods should be explored first. Why? This is because of the emotional and psychological effects of spinal stenosis surgery to patients. Patients who have undergone or will undergo spinal stenosis surgery usually experience emotional instability, anxiety, fear, and depression.

When is it best to go for spinal stenosis surgery? This is so when serious body functions such as nervous system, bladder function, bowel function, and locomotion are at risk and when series of non-surgical treatments done did not present help in patient’s situation.

Although carrying out surgery for spinal stenosis is, most of the time, elective, several studies have shown the effectiveness of the surgery for spinal stenosis over the non-surgical approaches. As spinal stenosis surgery can be very risky, however, medical precautions are highly demanded. Among the prerequisite tasks to spinal stenosis surgery are the very rigorous anatomical checking of affected area and stringent checking of patient’s current state – physical and metabolic.

Among the most common surgical approaches to spinal stenosis are (1) laminectomy spinal stenosis surgery which aims to give the nerves more space by removing the roof of the vertebrae; (2) foraminotomy which aims to remove the ‘exit point’ of the nerve root from the root canal to give the root canal more space; (3) medial facetectomy which aims for the additional space in the root canal by removing the bony structure in it; (4) cervical spinal stenosis surgery which aims to remove the intervertebral disc which will fuse the vertebrae in time; (5) spinal decompression surgery which is done by removing the offending bone to relive the pain; (6) fusion surgery which aims to eliminate the source of pain by fusing body spine to minimize the excess in necessary movement of the disc; and (7) laminoplasty which aims to give the spinal canal more room by surgically reconstructing  the cervical spine (its posterior elements, specifically). The most common spinal stenosis surgery is the laminectomy spinal stenosis surgery.

Effects of spinal stenosis surgery are greatly driven by the extent of the case of spinal stenosis prior to the surgery. For severe cases, there are number of reported instances where numbness can still be felt by the patient after the surgery. Pain is sometimes still significant after the surgery. Some cases even show no improvements at all. Some cases may be cured after surgery and recur after five years or so. At worst, implications to other parts may even be introduced if not properly handled. These are among the risks one has to face in undergoing spinal stenosis surgery.

Despite the uncertainty spinal stenosis surgery gives, there are cases where having it is not an option but a must.