Can a patient who has undergone spinal surgery live a normal life all over again?

Now-a-days, because of full time sitting jobs or heavy load carrying jobs people are suffering from severe back problems. When diagnosed, doctors suggest spine surgery because their situation has gotten worse. If you are afraid whether you would keep up with your work post surgery period then read this article to get rid of your fear.

Research on workers

There was a conduction of survey in which all those patients who have undertaken spinal surgery were surveyed. Following were the important details about the survey:

• Only the patients with age of 19 to 60 were surveyed.

Among them, there were:

• Students
• Retired
• Unemployed
• Workers’s compensation claim 

• The average age of the patients was 45.22

• The patient’s were suffering from the following spinal issues:

• Disc Herniation
• Recurrent Disc Herniation
• Spinal Deformity

Results 

The patients undergone the surgeries were asked to rate their pain on the scale of 1 to 10.

It was observed that:

• Patients who have undergone smaller surgeries rated their pain 7/10 in the first year. But following that year, their pain decreased to 2-3/10.
• Patients with the giant surgeries scored 3-4/10 after 4 years of their surgery.

All the patients recovered at a heavy rate. Even the considerations were made according to the medications and functional movement.

Does return to work completely dependent on surgery?

It is quite obvious that recovery rate  highly depends on the type of surgery undertaken.

• 95% of patients who have undergone lumbar discectomy were still working four years afterwards.
• 81% of the patients who have taken up laminectomy for spinal stenosis were yet working four years post surgery.
• 80% of the patients treated for spinal deformity were yet working on a full time basis for approximately four years after surgery.

What are the positive consequences after taking up the spinal surgery?

Following are the consequences of the post surgery period:

• No fear of fusion

It is quite obvious that fusion of 2 to 3 levels may occur. It is because there is a high need to relieve the pressure on strained nerves. 

• One can return to the normal schedule

According to the conducted research, it is very usual with the patients who  have undergone spinal surgery to get back to their jobs. It requires only a good diet and proper care after surgery. Even people who were earlier doing jobs which involved heavy work were now doing jobs of the same kind. Heavy workers were among those who have rated their pain 2-3 out of 1 to 10 scale.

• Successful surgery in the first attempt

It highly depends on the success of the surgery in the first attempt. If the surgery is not successful in the first attempt and subsequent surgeries have to be undertaken, then recovery rate falls. More the surgeries, more the discomfort and less the recovery rate.

• Patients with multiple surgeries

Patients who have undergone multiple surgeries will take considerable time for getting wholly recovered. It is because their immune system is treating various body parts simultaneously.

Final Thoughts

Spinal surgeries are those surgeries which could make or break the life of an individual. If these surgeries are successful in the initial attempt, then people will not undergo a slow recovery rate. If one is suffering from spinal complications, they must visit the skilled and trained Orthopedic surgeon.