Living with constant pain can be frustrating and disappointing, especially when you’ve undergone surgery to address it but that doesn’t resolve your symptoms. While this phenomenon is known as failed back surgery syndrome, it doesn’t necessarily mean the procedure itself didn’t work to mechanically achieve it’s goal. .
Instead, it’s a common problem seen in up to 40% of people undergoing spine surgery for back pain, and it has three primary causes.
Our team of physicians specializes in comprehensive pain-relief solutions at Glaser Pain Relief Center in Encino, California, including options for failed back surgery syndrome. If a surgical procedure didn’t resolve your symptoms, here are three common reasons why and how we can help.
Back surgery typically has two functions: stabilizing a painful joint or decompressing a pinched nerve root. To do that, your surgeon has to accurately identify the anatomical issue or injury responsible for your pain so they can correct it.
When diagnosing the cause of a pain condition, surgeons look for specific issues that correlate with the symptoms the patient experiences. It’s no secret that the spine is incredibly complex, along with the pain it can trigger, especially when nerves become involved.
Unfortunately, several types of back pain can mimic other causes, including those that don’t even originate in the spine — like hip osteoarthritis and piriformis syndrome, which involves a muscle in the buttocks.
As a result, the leading cause for failed back pain surgeries lies with unidentified or misidentified issues.
On top of the challenges associated with accurately diagnosing back pain, several factors can also impact the effectiveness of your procedure, such as:
People undergoing back surgery because of legal issues or workers’ compensation cases also have higher rates of failed back surgery syndrome.
If you have these preoperative risk factors, you could still be a good candidate for back surgery. We work with you to identify potential problems and address them to increase your chances of success.
It’s common for people to have ongoing problems after back surgery because of issues that arise after the procedure. Postoperative causes of failed back surgery syndrome include:
Undergoing spinal fusion for back pain can also put stress on areas of the spine above the treatment site, causing faster degeneration — a condition known as adjacent segment disease.
Even if your back surgery didn’t provide the results you’d expected, you can get relief. Our team takes a multidisciplinary approach to pain management, meaning we could recommend a combination of therapies to address your symptoms and restore both function and your quality of life.
To start, we discuss your back surgery complications, symptoms, and medical history. Based on this consultation, we could offer a treatment strategy involving anything from medications, targeted injections, and physical therapies to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, pain pumps, and spinal cord stimulation.
You don’t have to give up on finding pain relief. Even if back surgery doesn’t help, we can. Contact our Glaser Pain Relief Center team in the San Fernando Valley to schedule a consultation by calling 424-0402-1240 or requesting an appointment online today.
