Spinal Surgery, a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?

A study published in 2011 in the prestigious journal Spine concluded:

1. Only 26% of those patients electing to have surgery were able to return to work compared to 67% for those who

did not have surgery

2. Of those that chose surgery 27% had to re-operate again

3. 36% of the surgical patients went through some kind of complication

4. 11% of those having surgery were left with permanent disability compared with 2% for those that didn’t, so your risk of disability increases 5.5 times with surgery

5. Those patients that had spinal fusion had to increase their drug dosage 41% after surgery, with 76% having to continue to use drugs

6. Surgical patients had to use drugs 3.6 times longer than those without surgery

So with all the facts above, in my view spinal surgery is an option, but only when everything else has been tried. I often have patients come to me saying "I've tried everything", but in reality all they have tried is a few cheap products from Facebook, a GP appointment and some exercises from a Physio who didnt do a proper assessment. I personally wouldn't take the risk of surgery until I'd literally exhausted every single option around me and had no other choice......