Alternatives to back surgery: you have choices!

One of our primary goals here at the Roseville Disc Center is to educate and inform everyone that comes into our office about the truth about back surgery andthe alternatives. Before for we talk about other options besides low back surgery for the treatment of bulging discs we need to discuss the true cost and risks of spine surgery. Herniated disc surgery alternatives become a real option once someone has been told that they need surgery. Lumbar surgery alternatives are important because back pain affects up to 80% of Americans at some point in their lives. Lower back pain is also the most common disability among people under 45 years old. Low back pain and lumbar surgery alternatives become important because the costs the low back pain it Is more than $100 billion annually in the USA. Over 20 billion of this is spent on back surgeries. With that much money being spent on lumbar spine surgery, anyone considering these surgeries must look at the alternatives to spine surgery, herniated disc surgery alternatives, and bulging discs treatment alternatives before committing to having the surgeries period

Hidden Costs of Spine Surgery: Why Spine Surgery Alternatives are Inexpensive

A lot of people think that because their insurance covers spine surgery, that it would cost less for spine surgery than most of the effective bulging disc surgery alternatives. But that is far from the truth when you consider all the costs of spinal surgery. The herniated disc surgery alternatives, like non-surgical spinal decompression, not only cost less than lumbar spine surgery, but it is also more effective. More than 1 million Americans undergo back surgery every year, this rate is double that of most developed countries in five times that of United Kingdom. That would not be a problem if these surgeries were very safe and effective, but one of the reasons people look for lumbar surgery alternatives, and spine surgery alternatives, and disc surgery alternatives is because surgical complications occur commonly. These complications may include infections, nerve damage and permanent disability. The other reason that many people look for herniated disc surgery alternatives is because it costs of back surgery keep going up. Even with insurance the co-pay at 20% for lower back surgery including all the rehab and medication is around $11,500. There’re many associated hidden costs with lower back surgery that included Lost wages, physical therapy, Post-surgical complications including infection, and all the medications. And that’s if the surgery works out!

Failed Low Back Surgery: Why Herniated Disc Surgery Alternatives should be the First Choice.

“ Back surgery – the risks are enormous. Infection, nerve injury, the failed back surgery where you have chronic pain for the rest of your life… if I have a patient comes in, I don’t care who they are, and they have back pain or neck pain, before I would ever recommend that they had the surgery, surgical procedure, invasive procedure, even epidural injection, I would recommend spinal decompression because there is no downside to trying this and it works”

– Dr. Timothy Kremchek, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon as seen on HBO, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated.

So what is the truth about Lumbar Spine Surgery? In SurgNeurol 1998 Mar;49 (3) a peer reviewed medical journal for Neuro Surgeons, article entitled “Unccecessary spinal surgery will waste billions in 2009” it stated the following:

1. Some studies show the failure rate for spine surgery to be as high as 50%
2. For a single-level spinal fusions, as few as 40 % of the patients obtain significant pain relief.
3. Microdisectomy’s overall success rated is only 74%
4. Workmen’s comp patients report success in only 29% of the cases
5. The official diagnosis of “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome” include:
   1. Foraminal and Spinal stenosis
   2. Painful disc disease
   3. recurrent herniated Nucleus pulposis
   4. and Arachonoiditis (infection)

One final word on spinal surgery. With any surgery there are risks associated. These risks sometimes involve death. We are not talking about the person who has a heart attack while on the operating table here, we are talking about people who die within 3 years of the spine surgery. Studies show that nearly 1 in 50 back surgery patients dies within 3 years of the surgery. These death rates significantly increase when analgesics (pain killers) are involved, and the mortality rate increases sevenfold when cage devices are used in conjunction with analgesics.

All of the above are important considerations when deciding on spinal surgery versus bulging disc surgery alternatives, herniated disc surgery alternatives, and lumbar surgery alternatives. So what is the answer?

Spinal Surgery Alternatives: Try the non-surgical avenues first!

A 2008 article in Newsweek magazine chronicle of the story of Seattle resident Bruce Wilson, who had endured seven back surgeries (at a cost of $278,000dollars) and spent hundreds monthly on pain relievers, and despite all of this, Wilson’s back pain persists. The article goes on to state that people with chronic in severe back pain should always try the nonsurgical alternatives first.

Nonsurgical spinal decompression

There are many studies to show the effectiveness of nonsurgical spinal decompression. We will just talk about one right now ”Nonsurgical spinal decompression was associated with a reduction in pain and an in disk height” a team of physicians from such prestigious institutions as Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, in Georgetown University conducted a clinical trial that concluded:

1) patients who underwent non-surgical spinal decompression experienced on average a 74% decrease in pain.

2) patients also experienced an average of a 17% increase disk height

BioMed Central, “Restoration of dis height through non-surgical spinal decompression is associated with decreased discogenic low back pain: a retrospective cohort study.

This and many other studies show that nonsurgical decompression can help not only with the pain associated with disc bulges and disc herniation’s but it can also partially restore some of the normal healthy height to a disc, which opens up the nerve spaces and takes off some of the pressure that a herniated disc places on the nerve and reduce it.

Please look at the rest of our website for more information about nonsurgical spinal decompression.