Chiropractic Vs. Back Surgery
If you’re having low back pain and have questions about whether you should call a spine surgeon or a chiropractor in Greenville, NC there are some things you need to know first.
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The spine was designed to be mobile.
- This is hugely important when considering low back surgery. Surgery is certainly not a simple procedure however the overall concept is not complicated.
- When there is a disc bulge, low back surgery attempts to remove the disc and replace it with bone. When there is no disc, it completely immobilizes the joint but also can remove the current source of low back pain or more commonly radiating leg pain (sciatica) because the disc, which was removed is no longer putting pressure on the nerve. This assumes that nerve pressure from the disc is the ONLY cause of the low back pain and symptoms or sciatica. That, of course, is not always the case and one reason why low back surgery is often ineffective.
- After low back surgery, your spine will NEVER be normal. That does not mean that the low back pain or sciatica symptoms can never get better. It means that your spine is designed to move and when you cut out the disc allowing that movement and fuse it, you are going to likely cause other problems later on down the road. Most surgeons will tell you that once you have low back surgery, the question is not “if” but “when” you will have low back surgery again.
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Typically low back pain arises from a few basic problems.
- A DISC BULGE is when the disc, which is the main joint between two vertebrae, is damaged. There are a few different ways that the disc can bulge or be damaged and cause low back pain or sciatic pain.
- A disc bulge can put pressure on one of the two spinal nerves that are coming out of the vertebrae at any level.
- A disc bulge can put pressure on the spinal cord itself.
- A disc bulge or disc degeneration can cause pain due to the nerve fibers that are found in the end plate of the vertebra where the disc and the vertebra meet on the top or bottom of the disc.
- This is a common source of low back pain that is often unable to change during low back surgery. Because low back surgery often fuses the damaged disc and joint in place, it prevents the joint, which needs movement to heal, from moving and healing. Low back surgery is much more ineffective with low back pain symptoms caused by end plate damage than disc bulging and causing radiating leg pain from hitting a spinal nerve.
- SPINAL STENOSIS literally means “narrowing” of the spine in Latin. The question is “WHY?” Most commonly there are bone spurs (osteophytes) that grow on the vertebrae due to degeneration of the spine which is caused by abnormal stress on the vertebra. This abnormal stress is typical because the spine has shifted out of place, i.e. scoliosis, anterior head syndrome (a.k.a. gooseneck or forward head posture). When your spine is not balanced and is in an abnormal position instead of its normal position, there will be more stress on the bones. Your muscles have to work hard to hold an object when it is farther away from your body than when it is close. Similarly, when your spine is shifted to an abnormal posture, your body’s center of gravity is moved away from a centered and balanced position. This will put an uneven stress on smaller areas of your spine instead of the same amount of weight being evenly distributed throughout ALL of the discs and vertebrae in your spine. This abnormal stress will cause the bone to grow more bone…hence the bone spurs. These bones spurs can be located on the back of vertebra, inside the spinal canal. More bone in the spinal canal, which is where your spinal cord is, equals a narrower spinal canal which is called spinal stenosis.
- Surgery for spinal stenosis typically consists of a laminectomy which is when they cut the laminae (the back of the vertebrae) of the vertebra off. This allows for less pressure on the spinal cord. The idea is that if there are bone spurs in the front of the spinal canal then removing the back of the spinal canal (the laminae) will give the spinal cord more room so there is less pressure. The other option to remove pressure from the spinal cord is to remove the bone spur causing it but that is not done because you have to move the spinal cord out of the way when coming from the back, which is extremely dangerous. Keep in mind that this bony armor that is protecting your spinal cord from the back and is there for muscles to attach to, is no longer there.
- Surgery may still be an option but should VERY rarely ever be the first option.
- Western medicine is great at saving lives in emergency situations. If I’m shot and have a bullet in my spine or was involved in a SEVERE car accident and my spine is crushed, then surgery is almost certainly my first option. Emergency situations like this, however, are only a very small fraction of situations in which spinal surgery is done. The first option for most chronic or musculoskeletal symptoms like low back pain, neck pain, mid back pain, headaches, sciatica, etc. should always be chiropractic treatment. It’s important to understand that the way to solve a problem is to first know the cause of that problem and
abnormal spinal alignment is certainly the most common cause of low back pain, which is why chiropractic care is so effective in treating it.
- Low back pain is NEVER caused by a lack of screws in your spine or bone chips where your disc was. You don’t have a deficiency of NSAIDS, muscle relaxers or opiates. These treatments are not only invasive but come with serious potential side effects and at best, are only capable of removing symptoms to allow you to ignore the problem for longer without actually addressing the reason your low back pain is there.
- Western medicine is great at saving lives in emergency situations. If I’m shot and have a bullet in my spine or was involved in a SEVERE car accident and my spine is crushed, then surgery is almost certainly my first option. Emergency situations like this, however, are only a very small fraction of situations in which spinal surgery is done. The first option for most chronic or musculoskeletal symptoms like low back pain, neck pain, mid back pain, headaches, sciatica, etc. should always be chiropractic treatment. It’s important to understand that the way to solve a problem is to first know the cause of that problem and
- A DISC BULGE is when the disc, which is the main joint between two vertebrae, is damaged. There are a few different ways that the disc can bulge or be damaged and cause low back pain or sciatic pain.
To better understand low back surgery and chiropractic care take a look at the table below for an exhaustive comparison of the two treatment options.