Full Answer
How soon after a spinal injury should you have surgery?
Undergoing surgery shortly after the injury may have meaningful benefit for people with SCI, as studies link early surgical intervention to better long-term outcomes. If you’ve been through a traumatic event, your spinal column and spinal cord may have sustained significant damage.
Can spinal cord compression be prevented?
Many causes of spinal cord compression can’t be prevented. You can help prevent symptoms of spinal cord compression caused by gradual wear and tear by keeping your back as strong and healthy as possible. Get regular exercise. Exercise strengthens the muscles that support your back and helps keep your spine flexible.
Should I undergo spinal cord surgery?
Much of the decision about whether to undergo spinal cord surgery will depend on your age, overall health, the location of the injury, and how much your symptoms affect your day-to-day life.
When is the best time to have decompression spine surgery?
While the available evidence supports early surgical intervention after traumatic spinal cord injury, there’s no standard clinical guideline about the optimal timing of decompression spine surgery. Your spine surgeon will take your specific injury into account when determining the best time for you to undergo surgery.
Can you wait too long for back surgery?
As a Spine Surgeon, I will have to agree that waiting too long has potential detrimental effects. Patients often get physically deconditioned. Drug dependency is often a common concern. The psychologic effect of pain leads to depression, irritability and social relational issues.
How long do I have to wait for back surgery?
If You Do Need Surgery, Timing Matters. In most cases, back surgery isn't a rush. Lehman often tells patients with herniated (or “slipped”) discs, or degenerative spine conditions that are slow to get worse, to wait 6 weeks before surgery. This gives him a chance to see if your body will heal on its own.
How do you know when it's time for spine surgery?
Symptoms include: Abrupt loss of bladder or bowel control. Severe lower back pain. Severe weakness or numbness of the lower body.
Is spinal cord compression a medical emergency?
Spinal cord compression or cauda equina syndrome (compression of nerve bundle in lower spine) is a medical emergency. Call your healthcare provider or go to the emergency room if you have: Sudden loss of bowel or bladder control. Severe or increasing numbness between your legs, inner thighs, or back of your legs.
Why you should avoid back surgery?
If things go south, some of the potential complications of back surgery can include an adverse reaction to anesthesia, bleeding, infection, deadly blood clots that can circulate to the heart or lungs, heart attack, stroke, and nerve damage.
How often should you do spinal decompression?
How Often to Do Spinal Decompression? Typically, you will undergo 2-5 spinal decompression sessions per week, for four to six weeks. That's 12-20 appointments before you can experience long-lasting pain relief.
What is the success rate of spinal surgery?
Repeat spinal surgery is a treatment option with diminishing returns. Although more than 50% of primary spinal surgeries are successful, no more than 30%, 15%, and 5% of the patients experience a successful outcome after the second, third, and fourth surgeries, respectively [12].
What are the side effects of spine surgery?
Like all surgical procedures, lumbar decompression surgery carries some risk of complications.Recurrent or continuing symptoms. ... Infection. ... Blood clots. ... Dural tear. ... Leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. ... Facial sores and loss of vision. ... Nerve injury and paralysis. ... Death.
Is spinal fusion a high risk surgery?
Spinal fusion is generally a safe procedure. But as with any surgery, spinal fusion carries the potential risk of complications. Potential complications include: Infection.
Is spinal cord compression serious?
Spinal cord compression happens when pressure on the spinal cord stops the nerves working normally. Spinal cord compression is an emergency and needs to be treated quickly. Contact your doctor straight away if you have any symptoms of spinal cord compression.
What is the best treatment for spinal cord compression?
How is spinal cord compression treated?Medicines may include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that relieve pain and swelling, and steroid injections that reduce swelling.Physical therapy may include exercises to strengthen your back, abdominal, and leg muscles.More items...
Does spinal cord compression affect the brain?
Spinal cord injury causes inflammation which can affect the whole nervous system – this includes the brain, and the brain can be very sensitive to inflammation and pressure.
Days 1 – 3
Your recovery will begin as soon as your surgeon has closed your surgical incision. You will be taken to the recovery ward where you will receive intravenous pain medications and have your vitals monitored until you wake up and are stable.
Days 4 – 7
Consider having someone come in and help you; especially during these first few days of your at-home recovery. You will be more tired than you typically are as your body is recovering from surgery. Take it easy and get as much rest as you feel you need.
Days 8 – 14
By the beginning of your second week following surgery, you should be feeling better. Some of your energy will have returned and you’ll be experiencing less pain. You may feel as though you can do a lot more but it’s important to remember that your body is still healing.
Days 15 – 30
You’re more than two weeks into your post-surgical recovery! At this point, you’ll have had a follow-up visit with your doctor and will know how your healing is progressing.
After 30 days
Continue to attend your follow-up visits with your surgeon. If you work in a high-impact job, ask your surgeon when you can expect to be able to return to work. Most people are released to resume working in strenuous occupations at around 6 weeks.
Where does spinal cord compression occur?
The nerves of your spinal cord run through the openings between the vertebrae and out to your muscles. Spinal cord compression can occur anywhere from your neck (cervical spine) down to your lower back (lumbar spine). Symptoms include numbness, pain, and weakness. Depending on the cause of the compression, symptoms may develop suddenly ...
What causes spinal cord compression?
Spinal cord compression is caused by any condition that puts pressure on your spinal cord. Your spinal cord is the bundle of nerves that carries messages back and forth from your brain to your muscles and other soft tissues. As your spinal cord travels down your back, it is protected by a stack of backbones called vertebrae.
How to tell if your spinal cord is compressed?
Symptoms such as pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms, hands, legs, or feet can come on gradually or more suddenly, depending on the cause. Spinal cord compression can often be helped with medicines, physical therapy, or other treatments. Except in emergencies, surgery is usually the last resort.
How to keep your spine flexible?
Exercise strengthens the muscles that support your back and helps keep your spine flexible. Maintain good posture and learn how to safely lift heavy objects. Other good body mechanics include sleeping on a firm mattress and sitting in a chair that supports the natural curves of your back. Maintain a healthy weight.
What tests can help diagnose spinal nerve damage?
Tests that help with your diagnosis may include: X-rays of your spine. These may show bone growths called spurs that push against spinal nerves. X-rays may also show an abnormal alignment of your spine. Special imaging tests of your spine.
Types of Spinal Cord Surgeries
In the United States, about 80% of individuals with a spinal cord injury undergo surgery, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center’s 2020 Annual Statistical Report. Depending on the severity of the spinal cord injury, different types of spinal cord surgeries may be recommended.
How Timing of Spinal Cord Surgery Affects Outcomes
The debate over the ideal timing for spinal cord injury surgery has been controversial.
What to Expect After Spinal Cord Surgery
After a spinal cord surgery, individuals may feel as if they’re in a completely different body due to loss of sensation and motor control. Rehabilitation after SCI focuses on reteaching the brain, muscles, peripheral nerves, and spinal cord to work in sync again through continuous repetition.
Understanding Spinal Cord Surgery: Key Points
Generally, spinal cord surgery focuses on decompression of the spinal cord and stabilization of the spine.
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How long does it take to recover from a spinal cord injury?
The most significant recovery is often seen within the first six months after a spinal cord injury occurs. However, people have been known to experience improvements even years after their injury with aggressive rehabilitation and physical therapy. The most important thing to remember after a spinal cord injury is that you are not alone.
How long after traumatic injury can you have surgery?
For some individuals after a traumatic injury, spinal cord injury surgery is an immediate and necessary need. However, some SCI patients may have to wait weeks, months, or even years after their initial injury to undergo surgery due to other health-related factors. The goals of spinal cord injury surgery are to:
How does spinal cord surgery affect your life?
Much of the decision about whether to undergo spinal cord surgery will depend on your age, overall health, the location of the injury, and how much your symptoms affect your day-to-day life. If you are experiencing weakness or numbness that makes it hard to walk, demonstrate hand function, or causes bladder, bowel, or sexual function issues, ...
What is the goal of spinal cord surgery?
The goals of spinal cord injury surgery are to: Decompress or relieve pressure from the spinal cord (from bone fragments, tumors, or anything else that may be compressing the spinal cord), Improve the patient’s quality of life.
What is the procedure to remove a spinal cord?
A laminotomy, which involves the surgical removal of bone to decompress the spinal cord nerves, is a common form of spinal cord injury surgery for spinal stenosis. Other types of spinal cord injury treatment surgeries for spinal stenosis include: Foraminotomy: This procedure enlarges the area around one of the bones in your spinal column ...
What is spinal cord injury?
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) are life-threatening forms of trauma that require different types of treatment depending on the level and severity of each injury. The spinal cord, which consists of 31 nerve bundles housed within the boney protective structure of the spine, is a delicate and integral component of the body’s central nervous system (CNS).
What are the symptoms of a spinal cord fusion?
Bleeding and blood clots, Du ral tearing (tearing of the covering of the spinal cord), Failure of implanted fusion device (s), such as screws or rods, Infection, Injury to the spinal cord, Reaction to or complications from anesthesia, Return of pain or other symptoms following the surgery, and. Stroke.
Why is it important to have spine surgery after a SCI?
One of the benefits of having spine surgery shortly after suffering a SCI is it helps preserve healthy blood flow to your spinal cord. Inadequate blood flow caused by prolonged spinal cord compression promotes the secondary injury cascade ...
How does spinal surgery help?
Spine surgery may be used to resolve these issues by: Decompressing the spinal cord. Re-stabilizing the spine. Vertebral fractures have destabilized a section of the spinal column and compressed the spinal cord. Photo Source: 123RF.com.
What is the goal of decompression surgery?
The goal of decompression surgery is to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord and/or spinal nerves. This can be accomplished by removing damaged structures (eg, herniated disc, bone fracture) or soft tissues pressing on the cord and nerves—thereby creating space around these neural elements. Different types of decompression procedures exist (such ...
What is the goal of spine surgery?
Two goals of spine surgery after spinal cord injury that can benefit a patient’s long-term functional and sensory outcomes. Spine surgery plays an essential role in the traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) treatment plan.
What is the procedure to treat SCI?
Decompression, spinal instrumentation and fusion are surgical procedures that may help preserve your quality of life after SCI by helping to prevent spinal deformity, pain and progression of nerve-related damage (eg, weakness, tingling, and bowel and bladder problems ).
Can spinal fusion be performed after decompression?
However, if your spine is unstable, spinal stabilization surgery, often with spinal fusion is performed following decompression. Your spine may be unstable from the traumatic event, or the decompression procedure may create spinal instability, as it may have involved removing bone, disc or soft supporting tissue.
Is decompression surgery safe?
Several studies showed that decompression surgery is a safe and effective procedure after traumatic spine injury. In fact, one study showed that patients who sustained a cervical SCI and had spine surgery within 24 hours of their injury had greater odds of receiving at least a 2-grade improvement in the ASIA Impairment Scale compared ...
What is the treatment for spinal fusion?
It is occasionally used to eliminate painful motion between vertebrae that can result from a degenerated or injured disk. Artificial disks. Implanted artificial disks are a treatment alternative to spinal fusion for painful movement between two vertebrae due to a degenerated or injured disk.
What causes a nerve to compress?
These symptoms often are caused by compressed nerves in your spine. Nerves may become compressed for a variety of reasons, including: 1 Disk problems. Bulging or ruptured (herniated) disks — the rubbery cushions separating the bones of your spine — can sometimes press too tightly against a spinal nerve and affect its function. 2 Overgrowth of bone. Osteoarthritis can result in bone spurs on your spine. This excess bone most commonly affects the hinge joints on the back part of the spinal column and can narrow the amount of space available for nerves to pass through openings in your spine.
What to expect before spinal stenosis surgery?
Before the Surgery. On the day of your spinal stenosis surgery, you will be taken to a pre-operative room where you will be asked to change into a gown. You will undergo a brief physical examination and answer questions about your medical history from the surgical team.
How long is a spinal incision?
An incision 1-2 inches in length will be made along the spine to access the affected vertebrae and X-rays will be used to confirm the correct location. A bone drill will be used to first saw through and remove the spinous process and then the lamina of each affected vertebra to remove portions of bone.
How to treat spinal stenosis?
There are several different techniques that can be used for surgical management of spinal stenosis depending on what the root cause of the issue is. Spinal stenosis surgery may include one or more of the following: 3 1 Discectomy: a procedure to remove a damaged disc between vertebrae of the spine 2 Laminectomy: a procedure to remove a portion of the vertebrae, especially if there is a bone spur 3 Foraminotomy: a procedure to widen the foramina, the openings in the vertebrae where the nerve roots exit from the spinal cord 4 Spinal fusion: A procedure where two or more vertebrae are fused together
How long is a discectomy incision?
For a minimally invasive discectomy, a small incision less than 1 inch in length is made along one of the sides of the spine and a small tube is inserted into the space between adjacent vertebrae. This tube will be used to separate the back muscles and create a tunnel that will allow the surgeon to access the vertebrae of ...
How long is an open discectomy?
An open discectomy is performed by making an incision 1-2 inches in length for a single vertebral level. The muscles of the back are pulled to the side with a retractor in order to expose the vertebrae of the spine. 2 . For a minimally invasive discectomy, a small incision less than 1 inch in length is made along one of the sides ...
How long does it take for a discectomy to be performed?
These procedures typically take one to two hours to complete in total depending on how many vertebrae are affected. 3 .
What doctor can help with pain after surgery?
You can expect to receive a visit from a physiatrist, a rehabilitation medicine doctor that will help manage your pain levels and symptoms after surgery. A physical therapist will also visit your room to assess how you are able to move after the operation, including getting in and out of bed and walking.