ADVERTISING: Advertorial — Still having pain after low back surgery? You’re not alone

I often have patients come in and tell me they had back surgery, but they still are in the same amount of pain, if not more. Back pain is very common and it affects more than 31 million Americans, according to the American Chiropractic Association. More than 1.2 million spinal surgeries are performed each year in the United States, including spinal fusion, surgical decompression, or discectomy surgeries, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (April 2018).

Unfortunately, a large number of those patients still experience pain after the surgery. This condition is now known as Failed Back Surgery Syndrome or FBSS. According to The International Neuromodulation Society, “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS) refers to a subset of patients who have new or persistent pain after spinal surgery for back or leg pain. The pain can be reduced but still present, or may get worse within a few months after surgery due to a buildup of scar tissue around spinal nerve roots, along with persistent tissue pain and muscle spasm.”

But in truth, the name failed back surgery syndrome is completely inaccurate and very confusing. Having FBSS doesn’t mean that your surgeon has failed by any means. Just that you and your surgeon’s expected surgical outcome just didn’t happen. Many factors can lead to FBSS and most are out of your control.

The Journal of Pain Research published a review stating that the failure rate of back pain surgeries is more than 74 percent. This shows how many people continue to live in pain even after surgery.

The main purpose of back surgery is to stabilize the joint that is causing pain, and/or to decompress the nerve root that might be pinched. This pinching can lead to sciatica, radiculopathy or back pain. Before considering back surgery, you might want to look at a more conservative method, non-surgical spinal decompression. Non-surgical decompression is a safe and proven method to help decrease back and neck pain.

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Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. is a chiropractor at Natural Spine Solutions. The business is located at 3913 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene. For more information, please contact us at 208-966-4425.