In some cases, you may require surgery to treat your spine condition. Below is a list of back pain conditions and how surgery can help relieve your pain.
Herniated disc
A herniated disc is a painful back condition. It occurs when some of the disc material shifts and bulges into the spinal canal. It is also known as a ruptured disc and can occur at any level of the spine but most often occurs in the low back and neck. We may recommend surgery to remove the disc causing the problem.
Sacroiliac (SI) joint fusion
The SI joint is the joint between the sacrum and the ilium bones of the pelvis, connected by ligaments. If you have severe pain in your SI joint, we may surgically fuse your joint to inhibit movement.
Spinal stenosis / degenerative spondylolisthesis
The spinal canal is the space between spine bones where the nerves pass. When the spinal canal narrows, it can cause spinal stenosis/degenerative spondylolisthesis.
As people age, back conditions can develop due to the drying out and shrinking of the disc spaces between the bones (80% of the disc is made up of water). When the nerve is pressed due to shrinking disc space, it can cause you to feel pain anywhere along your neck, back, arm, or leg.
Sometimes, non-surgical treatments do not relieve the pain. Your spine surgeon may recommend surgery to relieve the pressure on affected nerves.
In selected cases, the results are quite satisfactory, and you can resume a normal lifestyle. Surgery is more likely to help relieve arm or leg pain, rather than neck or back pain, caused by spinal stenosis. In the surgery, we remove whatever is compressing the nerve (for example, a disc fragment or a bone spur).
Spine injury
We treat a wide range of traumatic injuries to the spine that may involve fusing one or more spine segments.
Spondylolysis
Spondylolysis is a back condition that is usually the result of an injury (a stress fracture) to one of the bones in the back. It is a very common cause of low back pain in adolescent athletes.
Nerves put under pressure from a kind of shifting of the bones in the back can cause pain or numbness in the legs.
We can perform spinal fusion between the lumbar vertebrae (lower backbones) and the sacrum. Sometimes, we use an internal brace of screws and rods to hold together the vertebrae as the fusion heals.