Should I have back surgery

Question

I have been told I have degenerative disc disease, ther is bone loss and the disc is moving forward. I'm afraid of the surgery. I have small chldren, I have to take care of and I've heard in some cases it gets much worse and one operation leads to another. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?????????? It is L4 L5 area. Please get back to me. Thankyou,,,,Ellen

This discussion is related to Should I have an L4-L5 Fusion.

squirtatious · Answer

Have you considered decompression therapy through a chiropractor or even seeing a chiropractor to help with ur issues? I believe a healing and non-invasive method of this sort is gentler and more beneficial. I wish u well!!

caregiver222 · Answer

There are other options besides NSAIDS, physiotherapy, exercises and epidural injection of steroids.

Pain relief can be obtained by anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprufin, or the use of a 5% transdermal lidocaine patch (for no more than 12 hours). Cut it with a scissors.

A TENS device is often quite helpful, as is accupuncture. The TENS device requires instruction from a specialist. The pads are re-used and kept in the refrigerator when not in use.

Injection of steroids under flouroscopic guidance is the standard of practice in small villages in Afghanistan.  They often use camals and small rodents to work treadmill powering a generator to provide electricity for the flouroscope. There are videos of this on you-tube.  Also the preferred treatment in the best hospital in Somalia. The best part is the cancer from the flouroscopy. The pain will overide the problem from the degenerated discs.

On a short-term basis oral steroids are helpful, however they have many side effects, including causing increased probability of infection and malignancies, atrophied adrenal glands and increased glucose levels. Start with 60 mg, wean down to 10mg and start on ibuprufin in two divided doses of 200mg a day.  Before going on long-term ibuprufin get a liver function test. Then go to 5 mg on the steroids and try to end them. 

The surgical procedure of choice is a laminectomy, however in the event of degenerative disc disease the problem often progresses. Determining the etiology of the disc disease is important, but not always possible. Sometimes it is due to an autoimmune disease. Somes due to vitamin deficiency. That is square one.

Dilute MEDICAL GRADE DMSO is a controversial anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. Applied along the spine it will relieve inflammation. Do your own research before considering this option.

Keeping well-hydrated is important. The discs are sensitive to hydration.

Learn to lift properly to avoid injury and avoid lifting altogether, if possible.

Exercises will help with disc compression secondasry to injury, but will often make degenerative disease processes worse.

For starters a good evaluation of the spine is desired, specifically L1-L5 with a 3T MRI.

DrSharma · Answer

Hi there. The treatment options for degenerative disc disease are NSAIDs, physiotherapy and disease specific exercises, epidural injection of steroids under fluoroscopic guidance to reduce inflammation in the spinal cord. A trained anesthesiologist, known as pain physician with much success, practices this technique. The final resort to unresponsive symptoms is surgical decompression. The outcome cannot be assured and can vary depending on the degree of disc degeneration, skill of the surgeon and your response to it. Hope this helps. The best option would be to discuss your apprehensions with your neurosurgeon and allay anxiety. Take care.